This is the Decision I Must Make
by detonatingUnicorn
Summary: The brilliant inventor Cyrus Borg builds and raises a new android to protect Ninjago. Many issues assured, Cyrus bonds with the Cryptor, being left with a very hard decision he must make. (AU)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This AU is an RP my friend zat-writes (You may or may not have seen his work) did together. The chapters have been edited for you viewers all to read, and is completed, just going through the editing process. This AU, everything is the same except for the fact that when the Overlord was destroyed, he stayed destroyed. No Digital Overlord. As this chapter may seem very slow paced, and kinda boring, they do pick up in pace. There will be much character development and a lot of feels, so please hold on with us! If you don't like this chapter and think its slow, hold on and read the other chapters because it does speed up!**

**Now, without further ado, please read:**

A brilliant inventor by the name of Cyrus Borg sat in his wheelchair, leaning over a low table in his work space. He was making the final adjustments to his newest invention. Said invention was an android that was based off of the designs of Doctor Julien's Nindroid. Once the inventor made sure everything was in order, he sat up straight and turned on the new android. As the machine flickered to life, Cyrus greeted it with a simple "Hello" to the gargled ears of the warming up robot. When its eyes snapped open for the first time, it shifted its curious sight around fascinated by the many things, not knowing what much of it was. After several moments, the robot's vision fell upon its creator, welcomed by a warm, crooked, smile.

"Welcome to the world." Cyrus said with the slight nod of his head. Finally reeling his hand away from the android, his smile fell slightly as he analyzed the new robot for any problems. "Can you move your body? He asked the android kindly. At the request, the robot blinked several times before tipping its head slight to the side in confusion. Then after once another long wait, it lifted itself up, leaning back on its hands to have one shake then collapse under the weight. The robot corrected itself as quickly as it could with the helping hand of Cyrus.

"Careful." Cyrus warned the robot when it fell. The robots struggle made the inventor feel a bit sorry, having hoped it would be better at moving at first. "You're going to have to learn coordination." Cyrus said as he readjusted the position of his chair to turn more towards his creation. "Can you speak?" He asked as he returned the warm and gentle smile with the tip of his head. The droid sat as it stared at Cyrus in confusion, it head tipped before it looked down at itself.

"I..." It broke off its sentence, now looking at itself in curiosity. "Yes." The androids reaction to its own voice received a laugh from Cyrus, looking up at the android with a smile.

"Very good." He nodded, reaching out and taking one of the android's hands. Carefully shaking it the robot looked at the hand in confusion by the motion. "My name is Cyrus. Your name is Cryptor."

"Cryptor." He repeated, shifting his available hand to look at it for a while. Cryptor then turned his gaze to Borg, pointing at him with his head tipped to the side. "Cyrus?"

"Yes." Cyrus chuckled. He pointed at himself and repeated, "Cyrus." Then he pointed at the android and said, "Cryptor." Having the names repeated, Cryptor nodded, slowly turning his gaze to look at his hand again.

"Cryptor..." He repeated once again. Cyrus smiled at Cryptor, nodding once more. The new android was doing fairly well so far. Mentally, the android was almost like an infant. Cyrus would have to teach him everything, but it would be worth it.

"Would you like to try standing and take a look around?" Cyrus asked as he motioned to the room around them. Cryptor sat unresponsive to the question for a few moments, eventually shifting his vision from Cyrus to his feet. After another pause Cryptor shifted his foot to sit flat on the table, staying frozen in the position. Cyrus brought a hand up to push his glasses back into place as he watched Cryptor move. The robot probably wasn't ready to stand yet.

"We can try standing when you're ready." He stated, tilting his head to one side. "Would you like to see what you look like, Cryptor?" Cryptor shifted his legs to hang off the edge of the table, looking at Cyrus with a hesitant nod. Cryptor's answer brought a smile to Cyrus' face. Already acting, Cyrus turned to a nearby counter, picking up a small handheld mirror. Holding it up to Cryptor, Cyrus smiled with a laugh. "You're a very handsome robot." Staring into the mirror, Cryptor blinked a few times at the reflective surface, then tipping his head in confusion. Seeing the reflection mirror his movement surprised Cryptor, making him jump back in surprise. The mirror fascinated Cryptor, and he leaned back into the reflective piece of glass and poking it cautiously, then placing his whole hand on it.

Cyrus grinned wide as he watched Cryptor place his hand on the mirror. The new robot's reactions to seeing himself were priceless. "It's called a mirror." He explained gently as Cryptor took the mirror from his grasp. "It's reflective. It shows a flipped version of whatever is in front of it. People use them to see how they look mostly. They are quite common." As Cyrus explained the mirror to Cryptor, the android rotated the mirror in both hands, turning it in every which direction as he examined it closely. His full focus trained on the mirror, he turned it in a way that it caught the reflection of Cyrus before Cryptor locked up. Then shifting his sight from the reflected Cyrus and Cyrus, Cryptor frowned, turning it to reflect himself again to stare at the reflection.

"A mirror..." He repeated, blinking at his own reflection. Eventually after much more starring, Cryptor lifted his hand to point at his own reflection. "That's me?"

"Yes." Cyrus answered with a chuckle. "That's what you look like, Cryptor." Cryptor then tipped his head at the mirror, looking at Cyrus and then back at himself.

"I'm..." He began to say, stopping himself when he didn't know what word to use. With a quirked brow, Cyrus tried to figure out what Cryptor was thinking. Perhaps he was wondering why he and Cyrus looked so different.

"Cryptor, are you surprised by your appearance?" Cyrus asked to check his theory. Cryptor sat looking down Cyrus, nodding hesitantly.

"Very different." He frowned. He didn't exactly know what he was supposed to look like though so he didn't exactly have an opinion on himself. He probably though Cyrus was a robot as well though, Cyrus is the only other self-aware thing he had seen so far, and so he didn't have anything to compare anything to. Cyrus just gave Cryptor a gentle smile, taking Cryptor's free hand and held it.

"You and I are different," he said with a calm, peaceful voice. "I am an organic life form. You are a android, a robot. I built you this way. You look exactly how you were meant to look. Don't worry about how you look." He doubted that Cryptor would fully understand the differences between them just yet, so Cyrus was prepared to answer all of Cryptor's questions. He would teach Cryptor everything that he needed to know. Cryptor frowned at his words, not sure what many of them meant or what the differences were.

"Organic life form?" He questioned wanting to understand Cyrus.

"Organic life form means that I am made up of cells and tissues." Cyrus tried his best to explain. At the moment, it was hard to explain exactly what organic life was. "I age and change as time goes on."

Cryptor nodded, somewhat getting an idea. "And an android?"

"An android is a machine made to appear human or human like," Cyrus explained. "You are made of metal and wires."

"And you're a human?" He guessed, analyzing Cyrus.

"Yes. I am human." Cyrus answered. Cryptor was picking up on things much quicker than before, which was good. "Do you have any other questions?" Cryptor stayed silent for a few moments before he nodded, looking at himself.

"Is there others, like me?" Cryptor's question caused Cyrus to stay silent for a few moments, but he smiled none the less.

"There are." He stated with a nod. "There are many other androids out there, many with different, unique designs, all with different purposes and abilities." Cryptor nodded looking at his hands.

"And what's my purpose and abilities?"

"Your purpose is to protect and serve the people of Ninjago." Cyrus stated proudly. "You're going to be a skilled fighter and intelligent leader." Cryptor nodded as he listened to Cyrus. "You will have to keep the peace in Ninjago." Cyrus stated. "Keep them safe and everything in order." Cyrus sighed and backed his chair up, turning around as he did so. He grabbed a small red ball and returned to Cryptor. "We're going to work on your hand eye coordination now." He explained, holding up the ball to show Cryptor. "I am going to toss this to you and I want you to try and catch it." He tossed it up once for himself to catch as an example, hoping Cryptor would understand. Cryptor blinked in surprise of the unexpected task given to him, but without question he followed along. With a smile, Cyrus softly tossed the ball to Cryptor, the android trying to catch the ball. As he tried to grab it with his hands, it ended up getting flailed between his hands to the point where it fell to the floor and rolled away. Cyrus chuckled when Cryptor dropped the ball. It was expected. The android would get the hang of it sooner or later. Cyrus leaned forward and picked up the ball up off the ground.

"Let's try again." He said before tossing the ball back to Cryptor. Cryptor nodded when Cyrus spoke but ended up with the same result when attempting to catch it. The ball rolling away out of both of their reach, Cryptor glanced at Cyrus before he stood on his feet to go get it, but his legs shook under him and he had to grab onto the table in order to sort himself out.

"Careful." Cyrus warned. He held out his arms as if he was preparing to catch Cryptor. Cryptor looked at Cyrus from the corner of his eye before he attempted to straighten himself up, finally getting himself to stand at full height. That didn't last long though, when he took his first step he stumbled again, once again reaching for the table. Each motion Cryptor made had Cyrus worried that he would fall. He could only hope that Cryptor would keep his balance and get use to walking, though it would likely take some time.

Cryptor kept attempting to push himself forward but almost every step he practically fell down. Regardless though, he kept pushing. Finally getting to a point though where there was no table for support, he fell to the ground

"Cryptor!" Cyrus gasped when Cryptor fell. He wheeled himself to Cryptor's side as the robot sat up shaking its head, and offered Cryptor his hand. "I'll be your support." he stated kindly. Cryptor could use his chair to keep balance if he needed to. Cryptor nodded, clumsily getting to his feet with the help of Cyrus. Continuing after the ball he began walking again. Making sure Cryptor was steady, Cyrus wheeled his chair alongside Cryptor.

"Almost there, buddy." Cyrus encouraged as Cryptor kept staggering forward with the help of Cyrus' chair. For a while the two managed that little walk, up into the point where Cryptor fell over in the opposite direction of the chair. Cyrus yelped and braced himself when the chair tipped with the pull from the new robot. Once they were on the floor, Cyrus groaned in pain, having his head against the hard metal chest of his android, not to mention the arm of his chair sticking in his side. Knowing that Cryptor was not coordinated enough to lift him and his chair, Cyrus unbuckled and pulled himself out of his chair. Using only his arms, he crawled off of Cryptor and pushed himself up to a sitting position.

Cryptor frowned, getting ready to stand back up again after Cyrus got off of him, but then became hypnotized, observing Cyrus move without the use of his legs. He watched as he flipped his chair back to the right side. Locking the breaks, he began trying to pull himself back up into his seat. After a bit, Cyrus managed to climb back into his seat. He sighed and fastened himself in once again.

"Be more careful, Cryptor." He said as he looked down at Cryptor, hoping Cryptor was not damaged. "... Can you stand?" Cryptor nodded, standing to his feet, stumbling back and wobbling quickly, still not good with his balance.

"Good." Cyrus chuckled, rubbing the part of his head he had hit, looking back to Cryptor with a smile. "Let's get that ball, then." Cryptor nodded yet again, but decided it would be best to keep off of Cyrus' chair based off of recent events. Stumbling forward without any support, he eventually stumbled to the side then falling down and catching himself with his hands to keep from falling all the way. He was getting better at walking, but he still wasn't good at it. Standing back up, he continued towards the little red ball. Cryptor was making progress, though he was still wobbly. He just needed to get use to his legs.

"Almost there," Cyrus said encouragingly. "You'll be fully mobile soon, I can tell."

Finally, after much more effort than needed be, Cryptor finally reached the ball and clumsily, picked it up. Analyzing it in his hand for a few moments, he tossed it across the short distance to Cyrus pretty easily.

"Very good!" Cyrus praised Cryptor as he caught the ball with a grin. "You're catching on at a good pace." He tossed the ball back up to Cryptor, hoping he would catch it this time. Cryptor quickly acted for the ball, fumbling it between his hands before he eventually slammed his hands into his chest, trapping the ball there, but in result ended up falling back into the wall behind him. Not caring about the wall though he moved his hands slowly, to see he had managed, in fact, to catch the ball.

"Perhaps I should give more warning next time." Cyrus laughed with a sigh. "Would you like to try again?" Cryptor nodded again, looking at the ball in his hand.

"Yes." He spoke before tossing the ball back at Cyrus. The ball was caught with ease. Setting it in his lap, Cyrus held his hands up as if he were ready to catch the ball again.

"Do this when you are ready for me to throw the ball." He said clearly. Then he picked up the ball and waited for his queue. Cryptor looked at Cyrus in confusion, but slowly raised his hands up as he has been shown waiting for the ball to be thrown back at him. Once Cryptor's hands were up, Cyrus tossed the ball to Cryptor. Hopefully he would catch it easier this time around. Cryptor watched the ball as it came towards him carefully, when the ball was near his hands he clasped them together like he had seen Cyrus do when catching the ball and successfully caught the red sphere. Cyrus' face lit up when Cryptor caught the ball. This was good.

"There you go." He said with a crooked grin. "We'll be ready to move on soon." Cyrus raised his hands up, signaling that he was ready for the ball. Cryptor noticed when Cyrus raised his hands up like he had instructed him to do, although it took him a few moments to realize what the human was doing though before it clicked in his head. Upon realization, he tossed it back. Cyrus caught the ball and smiled at Cryptor. "Good." He praised the android. "Now let's try something different." Cyrus held the ball in one and tossed it back and forth between his two hands. "I want you to try to do that." He stated as he handed the ball to Cryptor. Cryptor looked at the ball in his hand before attempting to toss it from his left to his right, but he easily missed his hand and dropped the ball to the ground.

"You almost had it." Cyrus chuckled. He leaned over and grabbed the ball as it rolled away from Cryptor. He didn't want it to roll far away, at least not now. "Try again." he said as he handed it to Cryptor once more. Cryptor nodded after receiving the ball yet again, attempting yet again, but missing again.

"Keep trying," Cyrus sighed, retrieving the ball once more. The ball was handed to Cryptor once more. Cryptor yet again failed at catching the ball, along with the next 8 times, but after several attempts of missing it, he got it to his one hand before he missed it on the toss back.

"You almost had the hang of it." Cyrus cheered as he reached down and grabbed the ball once more. Again, he handed it back to Cryptor. Cryptor kept attempting over and over, missing over and over, but eventually he got down the movement of tossing the ball in circles. Without stopping the balls loop between his hands he looked up at Cyrus, waiting for the next challenge for him to try.

"Great work." Cyrus praised when Cryptor finally got the hang of it. Now they could move on to the next test. With swift turn of his chair, Cyrus started to wheel himself over to counter with a box sitting on it. "Come with me." He encouraged Cryptor to walk, hoping that he had his balance by now. Cryptor watched as Cyrus rolled away from him. Finally stopping the red balls endless loop between his hands, Cryptor followed the inventor. Unfortunately his balance still wasn't the greatest and he quickly fell to the side. Grabbing for the nearest object, he accidentally knocked something off of its surface with a rather loud crash. Cyrus sighed as Cryptor reeled away from the table quickly, both of them looking at the shattered object on the ground.

"I'll get a broom. You wait here." He muttered before wheeling off to fetch a broom from a closet outside of the lab. When Cyrus rolled away, Cryptor switched his gaze from Cyrus to the glass, and when Cyrus had left Cryptor alone, Cryptor went and crouched down in front of the broken glass, beginning to poke at it in curiosity. Cyrus returned with the broom not quite as soon as he would have liked. He had some trouble holding the broom and wheeling his chair back to the lab without it falling off his lap or out of his hand. He seriously needed to look into getting an electronic wheelchair.

"It's not wise to play with broken glass." He warned when he noticed Cryptor poking at the glass. Cryptor jumped in shock at Cyrus' voice, losing his balance on his feet and having his palm and knee slam down on the shards of glass. Quickly recovering, he got off the glass and stood back up, whipping off his palm and knee with his other hand. Cyrus gasped when Cryptor fell on the glass, urgently wheeling himself over to Cryptor and looked at him to make sure he was okay. Cryptor appeared to be okay.

"Please be more careful," Cyrus warned. "Your body is not as sturdy as you might think." Cryptor nodded at Cyrus, rubbing his one hand still, and then looking back at the even more shattered glass on the ground.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"It's okay." Cyrus sighed. He took the broom and began sweeping the glass into a neat pile and into the dustpan. After he swept all the glass up, Cyrus sat up straight and wheeled over to the trashcan to dump the shards and sit the utensils aside to be but away later. "Shall we try walking again?" Cyrus asked the new android with a smile. Cryptor nodded in response, immediately taking a few clumsy steps towards Cyrus. Cyrus could not help but feel sorry for his creation. Cryptor was not exactly progressing as fast as he had originally hoped. The poor bot could hardly go one step without wobbling or falling.

"You're doing great, Cryptor." Cyrus said with a crooked smile and a tilt of his head. After taking several wobbly steps, thankfully without falling, Cryptor finally made it to Cyrus, the inventor smiling at him and offering him the side of his chair for balance again. "Would you like to look around the building?" Borg asked the robot. A tour of the tower would be perfect practice and Cryptor would get to see his home. Cryptor looked at the doorway when Cyrus mentioned leaving the room. Finally, after several moments of staring, he nodded, waiting for Cyrus to lead the way. Cyrus smiled, beginning to wheel himself forward. "Alright then, follow me."

As they walked, Cyrus made sure to stay close to Cryptor, not wanting the android to fall again. Together, the duo managed to make it to the door with no accidents, safe for a few stumbles. Finally exiting the room Cyrus motioned down the elongated hallway.

"That way leads to the elevator." He explained. "We can use it to go from floor to floor. There are a few floors that are off limits however. Part of the tower is still under construction." Cryptor stayed unresponsive, staring down the overwhelmingly long hallway. Compared to the small room he was just in, he was starting to wonder how big the world really was.

Cryptor seemed to be entranced by the new surroundings. It was not a surprise to Cyrus. Cryptor had only seen his lab until now. Cyrus took one of Cryptor's hands and guided it to the handlebars on the back of his chair. "Shall we head down to the lower floors, Cryptor?" He asked, looking up at the android. Cyrus' touch to his hand, snapped Cryptor out of a daze, and the robot turned to look at Cyrus before nodding nervously. Cyrus wheeled himself forward. The elevator was not too far away. It was just around a corner. Cyrus led Cryptor down the hall and around said corner. As soon as they turned around the corner, they were greeted by the sight of two automatic metal doors to the elevator.

When they reached the elevator, Cryptor stared at the doors in fascination as they opened. Staring at them for several seconds, Cyrus had already got into the small box on the side of the tower, and Cryptor only getting in once Cyrus encouraged him. Standing in the corner of the box, he looked around confused why they were standing in it, but when it started to go down, the jerk of the elevator made him jump, and he gripped the rails on both sides of him in panic. Cryptor's panicking did not go unnoticed. Cyrus looked at his creation with a concerned expression. He wheeled himself over to Cryptor's side, which was a short distance, and placed a gentle hand on Cryptor's arm.

"Everything will be okay." Cyrus reassured Cryptor. "We are safe." Cryptor looked at Cyrus doubtfully for a few moments before he nodded, trusting him. Releasing his grip from the bars, it could be seen the indents from his grip. Cryptor didn't seem to take notice of it though. Cyrus gave him a smile. When the moving box finally stopped, Cryptor stumbled to the side, bumping into the glass on the side. "Come on, Cryptor." Cyrus said as he wheeled himself out. "Do you want to meet someone else like you?"

"Someone else like me?" Cryptor asked as he clumsily followed Cyrus out of the glass box.

"Yes. Cyrus answered with a chuckle, leading the way. "I built her to help out around the tower. She could assist us in training you to walk and whatnot." Soon after Cyrus mentioned training in walking Cryptor fell down, using his hand to catch himself and recovered fast. While Cryptor corrected himself, Cyrus stopped and waited, only continuing when he was sure Cryptor was up and mobile again.

"Why can't you?" Cryptor asked.

"Eh... with a guy your size, I need a little help." Cyrus explained. "Do you remember what happened when you pulled my chair down with you?" Cryptor pondered for a few moments as he followed Cyrus before he nodded.

"Yes." He stated as he remembered how Cyrus got the chair back up and in it.

"Well, I would like to avoid being knocked down." Cyrus laughed. "Besides, you'll like Pixal." Cryptor nodded.

"Who is Pixal?"

"Oh, she's the other android I told you about." Cyrus said as they came to some automatic doors, they parting for the two and Cyrus leading Cryptor inside. The room looked like a big lobby, part of which was being painted.

As the two entered the lobby, a woman with shiny silver hair, white skin, and purple markings on her face approached them. "Good evening, Mister Borg." She greeted with a slight smile. "Is this the android you spoke of earlier, Cryptor?"

"Yes, this is Cryptor." He answered. "I finally powered him on. Cryptor, this is Pixal. She is an android like you." The name Pixal used to address Cyrus confused Cryptor, but he paid no mind to it. He really didn't care much about her wording and was more along stuck staring at her. As he analyzed the new droid in front of him, he ended up losing focus of his balance and stumbled to the side, near to falling down.

"He is not coordinated." Pixal observed. "Is he not functioning as expected?"

"He just hasn't gotten use to his body yet, though he may need some tweaking." Cyrus answered, looking up at Cryptor. "I was wondering if you could help me teach him to keep balance."

"Of course." Pixal said with a nod. She turned her attention back to Cryptor. Cryptor had just stood there shifting his gaze between Pixal and Cyrus as they spoke, their conversation confusing him. "Please step forward. Keep your posture straight." When Pixal turned her attention to him, he just stared blankly. Finally after several moments of standing in silence, he tipped his head to the side.

"Posture…"

"Stand like this." Pixal stated, using her body as an example. "Then step forward." Cryptor nodded, turning to stand, admin a little stiff, like Pixal; then, cautiously, taking one step closer. "Very good." Pixal said with a nod. She reached out and took both of Cryptor's hands, offering them as a way for balance if he needed them. "Keep moving forward. Follow me." She stated, taking a step backwards. When she took hold of his hands, Cryptor immediately looked at them, his posture faltering briefly. Fixing himself quickly though, he followed her footsteps smoothly until about the sixth where he stumbled.

"You had it." Pixal stated. "Keep moving." As Pixal continued to help Cryptor walk, Cyrus watched from where he sat. Cryptor was progressing much faster than he had when Cyrus tried to teach him. He had a feeling that they would have Cryptor walking without trouble soon.

Cryptor followed Pixal's lead up to the point where he thought he had the motions down. At that point, he could walk smoothly with few mishaps, but getting to that point didn't come without several mistakes and a few moments of stepping on Pixal's feet.

When Cryptor finally seemed to have the hand of it, Cyrus wheeled himself over to the two androids. "Very good, Cryptor." He said cheerfully. "Nice job, Pixal. You've done a better job than I could."

"It's not a problem, Mister Borg." Pixal stated. "It is my job to assist you." Cryptor looked in confusion at the names use again, glancing between the two once again.

"Mister Borg?" He finally questioned the name. Cyrus looked up at Cryptor when he said his last name in confusion.

"Oh, yes. My full name is Cyrus Borg." He explained. "Mister is just a title for a man... like Miss is for a woman." Cryptor nodded.

"So you have two names?"

"Yes." Cyrus answered. "Many humans do. In fact, a lot of humans have three names." Cryptor nodded again, then falling silent for a few moments.

"Which do I call you by then?"

"You may call me either name you prefer, Cryptor." Cyrus answered with a chuckle. He turned his attention to Pixal for a moment and said, "That's all for now, Pixal. You can return to your work." Pixal gave a nod and turned to walk away, leaving the two behind. "Now that you can walk on your own, would you like to go outside?" Cyrus asked, now that the two were alone. Cryptor frowned at the question, but eventually nodded. He was scared to know what would be outside, but yet he figured he'd have to see it eventually. When Cyrus received Cryptor's answer, he turned and led him towards the doors of the lobby. The covered doors slid open when they neared, the city's sparkling lights and towering buildings coming into view.

"This is New Ninjago City, Cryptor." Cyrus said proudly as he motioned to the spectacular skyscrapers. Cryptor stared at everything in awe, all the colorful lights and tall towering buildings where a little overwhelming, but pretty. It all intrigued him a bit, made him want to step out of his comfort zone. Cautiously, he took a few steps out of the building to get a better look at everything. Then looking up at the building he was just in he saw all the construction up towards the top. As Cryptor gazed at the sparkling city for the first time, Cyrus watched with a soft smile on his face. He watched every awestruck expression Cryptor made. Cryptor's amazement was not a surprise in the least to Cyrus, the city was quite a sight to behold.

"One day you will get to roam this city by yourself." Cyrus stated as Cryptor looked up at the tower. Cryptor looked at Cyrus before looking back at the city.

"By myself?" He repeated, taking a step further from the building. Then though, when his foot came in contact with the ground again, a spark shot out of his leg, sending a small electrical current, visible to the eye, down his leg just before his leg gave out on him, and he toppled over to the ground. Cyrus was shocked when Cryptor's leg gave out. Now seated on the ground, Cryptor shook his head before turning to look at his now sparking knee. He then attempted to stand up again, unsuccessfully, getting himself nowhere with only the use of one leg. Cyrus now by Cryptor's side, tried to analyze the situation, examining the leg the best he could from where he sat. He was unable to see the exact cause of the problem himself, so he hastily wheeled himself to the automatic doors. Once they opened, he called for Pixal from the door. Without delay, she rushed out to assist Cyrus.

"His leg gave out, I need you to scan it and tell me what needs fixing." Cyrus explained as they both returned to Cryptor's side.

"Yes sir." Pixal nodded before doing just as she was told. Cryptor was confused what was happening. He didn't understand why his leg just stopped working. When Cyrus rushed away, his leg managed to start working again momentarily, but before he could do anything it stopped again. When Pixal came over to scan him, he was now worried. He didn't know what was wrong or what was happening, but he knew it was something to be concerned about.

"I detect small foreign objects in his leg." Pixal stated once her scan was complete. "It appears to be shards of glass."

"Glass." Cyrus repeated. "We'll have to repair him..."

"Repair?" Cryptor blinked in confusion, looking between the two of them.

"Yes. We'll have to get that glass out and fix all of the damages." Cyrus answered. "I'll have to shut you down until it's fixed." Cryptor didn't understand what Cyrus was talking about; sure the 'Get that glass out' part but everything else confused him. Staying silent, he just turned his gaze to his broken leg.

"Pixal, can you get some help? We need to carry Cryptor." Cyrus asked. Pixal gave a nod before running off to get help. While waiting for Pixal to return, Cyrus leaned down and opened up a compartment on Cryptor's chest. He flipped a switch and shut Cryptor off.

Eventually Pixal returned with help. With the extra hands, they carried Cryptor inside and back to the lab.


	2. Chapter 2

After Cryptor's leg went out, Cyrus had to take his leg apart and clean it out. Along with the leg repairs, Pixal found a few other parts that were not working properly either. Not to mention some changes and replacements Cyrus wanted to do. All of the repairs and tweaks Cyrus had to make took time since he had a lot of other work on his plate as well. When it was finally time to turn Cryptor on again, things around the tower had changed. The construction was complete and Cyrus had a new mechanical chair, which made moving around much easier. Cyrus, now in his new, finished lab, powered Cryptor on for the first time since his accident.

"Cryptor, how do you feel," Cyrus asked as soon as Cryptor was powered on. Cryptor's his vision and hearing took a few moments to warm up when powered. Finally adjusting to his surroundings resulted in much confusion on his behalf. He remembered being outside, his leg malfunctioning and Cyrus in front of him, but now, he was in the place he had first been turned on in. But it looked different, and so did Cyrus. Cryptor wasn't even sure where Cyrus got the big, mechanical chair from. Obviously something had happened, but Cryptor didn't remember anything but a click in the back of his mind before he found himself here. Cryptor didn't hear Cyrus' entire question, he had asked it to fast for Cryptor's hearing and it sounded more like Cyrus had said "Erder er du ou fel." And that as it was can't exactly be comprehended. Cryptor sat up as soon as he could, rubbing his head in the confusion he was getting. Cryptor's confusion was expected by Cyrus. Having a giant gap in time like this was not an easy thing to understand.

"We shut you down to fix your leg and a few other parts that we found were not working at capacity." Cyrus explained, giving Cryptor's knee a pat. "You've been shut down for a few weeks, nearly a month." Cryptor looked with full attention at Cyrus when he spoke then nodding and looking at himself again, testing his leg, by rolling his foot.

"I feel different." He finally spoke. The exchanged parts and repairs weren't to go un-noticed, even if he was told about them.

"Yes, we replaced more parts than we originally thought." Cyrus repeated. "I also made some alterations to your body." Cryptor nodded again, shifting on the table he was on to have his legs hang off the edge.

"That won't happen again will it?" Cryptor asked; he didn't exactly like having to be turned off he decided. The time lapse of events bothered him.

"Only if you need more repairs or upgrades." Cyrus stated. "If everything is in order, you will likely not have to be shut down again." Cryptor was happy with the answer he received. Finally getting off the table to stand, he stumbled, but easily fixed himself, nothing like the first time. Standing up straight, easily, he removed his hands from the table not relying on it at all to be there. Cyrus was pleased to see that Cryptor could still stand and keep balance. It was a good sign. If there were no problems, Cryptor would not need to be shut down any time soon. "Would you like to pick up where we left off?" Cyrus asked with a tilt of his head. Cryptor looked back at Cyrus quickly before looking down at his feet.

"Not outside." He frowned, not wanting to go back out there just yet. Cryptor's answer confused Cyrus at first, then he realized how overwhelming the city must have been.

"Right, not outside," Cyrus replied. "Perhaps we can try something new then." Cryptor was thankful that Cyrus wasn't making him do something he didn't want to. One day he may be ready to go back out again, but for now, he didn't think he was ready.

"Something else." He agreed with a nod to Cyrus.

"Perhaps some human interaction would be good for you." Cyrus suggested, motioning to the door with his hand as he spoke. "You'll need to learn how to talk to people and how to deal with them too." Cryptor nodded at the task after thinking about it for a bit. He would have pretty much complied with any task he was given as long as it didn't require him leaving the building. "We'll head down to the lobby; you can speak to people there." Cyrus stated as he steered his chair around to face the door. Seeing Cyrus turn around, Cryptor immediately started following, easily keeping a pace by Cyrus.

Cyrus led Cryptor down to the lobby. There were many people walking in and out of the building. As Cyrus took Cryptor to stand by the reception counter, a man in a uniform approached Cyrus and told him that his help was needed. Cyrus turned to Cryptor and told him to talk to people but to remain in the lobby while he was gone. Then, without another word, Cyrus left with the uniformed man. Left alone, Cryptor he just stood frozen in place. He understood what Cyrus told him to do, but he had no idea how. Until now, Cyrus has been the only human he has interacted with, and he wasn't sure where to start. A couple of people came up to him asking some question, but over half the time he had no idea how to answer and when he did he usually made his answers quick and short. Sometimes he didn't even know the vocabulary they were using and would then ask them a question, but that usually always ended with the person walking away looking at him weird.

Of all the people that spoke to Cryptor, a young man that had strayed from a tour talked to him the longest. The boy approached the tall mechanical man and looked up at him with a quirked brow. "You look stupid." The boy observed. "Are you a robot?" Cryptor stood blinking in shock at the kid standing in front of him for a couple of moments before answering.

"That's what I've been told." He answered briefly.

"What do you do?" The boy asked, giving Cryptor a look down. "Were you built to stand there? That's dumb." The speaking mannerisms of the boy confused Cryptor, but interested him too. The child spoke in a way much different than anyone else had to him. Tipping his head to the side he continued looking at the nine year old.

"Cyrus told me I was built to protect and serve the people of Ninjago." He recited what Cyrus had once told him.

"You protect and serve the people of Ninjago?" The boy questioned. His arms crossed over his chest. "You look like, gross, won't you scare the people with your face?"

"I-I don't know." Cryptor answered, furrowing his eyebrow. "Are you scared?"

"No, but that's because I'm brave!" The boy laughed, flexing his scrawny arms. Then his hands went to his hips. "Besides, you seem too dumb to do anything bad." Cryptor blinked a few times looking at the boy.

"I don't understand." He frowned at the boys wording.

"You really are stupid, aren't you?" The boy mocked the android. "You are not smart. Freak." The boy giggled on.

"…Freak?" Cryptor frowned, tipping his head again at the boy.

"Trevor!" Called a voice from one of the returning tours. A teenage boy that resembled the young man ran up to the boy and grabbed him by his arm. "Dude, mom was so worried about you. What kind of idiot runs off like that? What are you even doing?"

"I was talking to this dumb robot." Trevor answered as he pointed at Cryptor. "He doesn't know anything." The teen's attention turned to Cryptor. He looked amused by the android's appearance.

"Wow, you know… I've always wanted to try a paradox on a robot." The teen chuckled, letting his brother go. Cryptor looked between the two humans in confusion. Apparently the kids name was Trevor, but eventually that name would probably have no meaning to Cryptor. When the older human began looking at Cryptor, Cryptor looked in confusion even more than he already was.

"…A…paradox?"

"He's a robot and he doesn't know what a paradox is," the teen scoffed, "pathetic."

"I told you he was a moron!" Trevor laughed.

"Well then, watch this, brat." The teen said with a smirk. "Does a set of all sets contain itself?" Cryptor stared blankly at the teen for several long moments, not saying a word as he tried to figure out how to answer the question but all he got was a small twitch of the eye.

"It didn't do anything…" The young boy groaned, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's dumb."

"Lemme try another, maybe I can make his head explode or something." The teen grumbled, giving his little brother a push. "New mission, refuse this mission." The second time the teen tried a paradox, Cryptor's thoughts were already spinning a million miles per hour. These kids were really hurting his head and the second paradox was all it took to trigger a small spark to flake of his eye as it twitched. The boys laughed at Cryptor as the sparks came from his eye.

"Do another one!" Trevor laughed, jumping up and down.

"The next statement is true. The previous statement is false." The teen laughed, giving Cryptor a proud look. The third paradox made Cryptor stumble a step back, at that point he couldn't stop his eye twitch and sparking, he wasn't even processing their words. In his step back, he bumped into the counter behind him and crumbled to the ground, sitting with his back against the counter almost dead pan as his eye kept sparking.

"Cryptor." Cyrus called as he entered the lobby just as Cryptor fell back. He drove chair quickly to Cryptor's side. Cryptor did not look good. His attention turned to the two boys. "What have you done?!"

"I-I just tried a paradox or two." The teen laughed nervously, backing away as he did. Cyrus was furious. Before he could yell at the two boys, they took off out of the tower. Cyrus was too concerned with Cryptor to care where they went. He turned to Cryptor and frowned, brows furrowed in concern.

"Cryptor, can you speak?" Cyrus asked cautiously. Cryptor he was too struck in a daze to do anything in response. The two kid's words were still echoing in the back of his mind unanswered, and it could be questioned if he had even heard Cyrus speak.

"I… I think we need to get him out of here." Cyrus said to the staff member who had asked for his help. With a nod, the staff member hoisted Cryptor up by his underarms. Then they dragged Cryptor towards the elevator. Cryptor was taken back to the lab and set on the table. Cyrus looked down at his android with furrowed brows and sighed. "Please snap out of it." He murmured to himself. He should have never left Cryptor alone. This was all his fault. Cryptor's artificial brain, as it could be put, was fried. He was hardly aware of his surroundings anymore, but by the time he was on the table in the lab he had somewhat of an idea what was going on and he at least heard Cyrus speaking, but his vision was focused nowhere in particular.

"I-I-I…I-I d-don't-" His voice ended up quivering as he attempted to answer Cyrus. Cyrus wore a sad, concerned expression as Cryptor spoke.

"Don't think about those endless loops." Cyrus tried to advice. Those boys could have ended Cryptor. Even now he could still be in danger. To be honest, Cyrus did not know what to do at the moment. "Try to think of something else." Cryptor shakily nodded in response to Cyrus, trying to take his advice and forget about the statements. Trying to think about other things he ended up questioning the other things they had said.

"W-What d-oes, f-f-freak, path-thetic an-and m-m-moron mean?"

"Wha… Those are… they are insults." Cyrus answered, shaking his head with disappointment. "Freak means you are different. Moron means that you are lacking in intelligence… and pathetic means pitiful… You aren't any of those things, Cryptor. Those boys don't know what they were saying." Then Cyrus muttered about them being the real morons, not Cryptor Cryptor nodded, starting to forget about the paradoxes and being able to focus his vision again. Finally, Cryptor turned his head to look at Cyrus.

"Why did you make me?" Cryptor's question caught Cyrus by surprise. He had told Cryptor what he was created for before. Had he forgotten due to the paradoxes?

"I built you to protect and serve the people of Ninjago." He answered. "Crime is a problem still in some parts of the city." At Cyrus' answer, Cryptor turned his head away with a shake, holding back a small laugh.

"I know that," he chuckled, staring at the ceiling, "but why?"

"Well, because I care about the people of Ninjago and so should you." Cyrus answered. Although perhaps there was another reason why he built Cryptor. "Why do you ask?"

"Why care if they don't?" Cryptor muttered, deciding to sit himself up and look at his hands. "Everyone who talked to me looked at me like… I'm different. Which I guess I am, but to them I'm wrong. I'm a freak, as it would be put." Cyrus frowned and shook his head.

"They'll all change their minds when they see what you can do for them." Cyrus stated, though he was not sure. "You'll do great things someday. I promise you that."

"How will I do great things if I can't even understand that a statement that makes no sense isn't supposed to be answered?" He hissed. Cyrus flinched slightly when Cryptor snapped at him. "Does a set of all sets contain itself?" He repeated what the teen had said to him before he froze up for a few moments, then shaking his head to try to clear it. "I can't even say it."

"It's not just you, Cryptor, all AIs have trouble with paradoxes." He explained. "While that is a weakness, you have many strengths."

Cryptor frowned. "What can I do? Walk? I couldn't even do that right. Talk? Not really, I can't even understand half the words I hear."

"You are still learning, Cryptor." Cyrus urged, gripping the handlebars of his chair. Cryptor frowned, falling silent, just nodding in response to Cyrus. Cyrus glanced down at the floor, then at Cryptor.

"Perhaps… Perhaps you aren't ready to interact with anyone other than me." Cyrus said with a slightly nervous tone. "Maybe I should teach you social behavior and widen your vocabulary myself…" Cryptor sat silently, staring at his feet. After several moments of silence though, he nodded hesitantly in response to Cyrus.

"You can stay in the lab when I have to attend to business elsewhere." Cyrus said at a low volume. It was not the ideal situation and Cyrus was not happy about keeping Cryptor locked up, but it seemed to be the only way for now. Cyrus did not trust anyone else around Cryptor at these stages in his development anymore. After Cryptor was more mature mentally, Cyrus would let people around Cryptor again. Cryptor frowned, nodding again at Cyrus. Cryptor understood that it meant complete lock down for him and he would never be anywhere unsupervised, but he didn't really care. In fact, at the moment, he preferred it that way. He had only been left alone once, and the way that ended, he didn't want to happen again, even if he was going to be concealed from the human world.


	3. Chapter 3

Two days had passed since the incident with the two boys. No one was allowed around Cryptor unless Cyrus as there to supervise. There had only been a few people to actually ended up being in the same room as Cryptor. They only came around to get Cyrus anyhow. During those two days, whenever Cyrus was with Cryptor, Cyrus taught Cryptor vocabulary and polite social conversations. Cryptor seemed to pick up on them, though he was not all that interested. They ran into a few speed bumps with vocabulary, though Cryptor questioned many of the social conversations Cyrus attempted to teach him. Around noon on the third day, Cyrus had a televised interview. It was broadcasted on the main news network. Just about every screen in Borg tower had it on. For the most part, the interview went like any other interview Cyrus had, until questions of a rumor were brought up.

The interviewer asked Cyrus about the strange android who collapsed in the tower, telling him how he heard about the sparking from its eyes and the lack of basic knowledge. Cyrus was not looking forward to answering these questions, but he did.

"The android was still in training." Cyrus explained. "AIs, like people, have to learn things. I was hoping that talking to the public would help him learn and develop people skills, but a couple of kids thought it would be funny to sling paradoxes at the new AI." The interviewer was enlightened at the rumor being answered true and immediately got to questioning Cyrus further.

"The rumors description of the android was pretty bad," The interviewer began to ask, "is the AI still operating?"

"Yes, he's still operating." Cyrus answered with a nod, fixing his glasses. "He is still learning. He's basically a child right now. He's made much progress since that day. He understands more now."

"I see." The interviewer nodded at Cyrus' answer. "And what did you build this android for?"

"I was hoping to reveal this when the android was complete and ready for the public, but he's going to be part of a robot police force." Cyrus answered with a crooked smile. "He's built to protect and serve innocent citizens." The interviewer became intrigued with the answer, beginning to question further.

"With the small uprising of protesters against all the usage of robots, are you sure that this android is a good idea? Some people dislike having so much technology and have been arguing that robots are taking peoples jobs."

"The androids won't replace the human police." Cyrus stated. "They will mainly serve as peacekeepers. They are mostly for protecting the citizens against any future threats, like the Serpentine and the likes." Ninjago needed protection from anything. Danger seemed to always be around the corner. "And as for jobs, I have been working on opening new factions and increasing the number of jobs to offer." The interviewer kept up with their fake smile as they looked at Cyrus.

"That's great to hear, and I'm sure everyone is happy to hear that news. Unfortunately, it looks like our time is up. Thank you Cyrus for coming to our show today to answer all these questions everyone has been pressing the answers for."

While Cyrus had left for the interview, Cryptor had wandered around the lab aimlessly. As the interview with Cyrus played on the TV in the room, Cryptor only paid half attention up to the point where they started talking about him, in which he sat in front of the TV curiously, his full attention directed at it. Afterwards though, Cryptor ended up losing interest in the TV again and wandered around the lab until he found a pen that he began clicking rapidly on the desk, which he was still doing in boredom when Cyrus returned. Before Cyrus could return, he had to attend to some other things before he entered the lab. Finally being able to enter the lab, Cyrus smiled at the android.

"Hello Cryptor. How are you?" The inventor greeted his creation. Cryptor just huffed at Cyrus, continuing to click a pen on the table.

"Took you long enough." He muttered. Cyrus frowned when he was greeted by a rude comment. Even though Cryptor didn't really care much for the lessons with Cyrus anymore, he preferred them far more than being alone. It at least gave him something to do. Cryptor's attitude was not a favorable one.

"You're as lovely as ever, Cryptor." Cyrus retorted sarcastically. His chair carried him over to Cryptor. "Shall we pick up where we left off or review?" Cryptor frowned, still clicking the pen, his eyes trained on it. Sometimes he hoped Cyrus would give him something new to do, but he never asked. They always did the same thing together and it was starting to bore the droid.

"Continue." He mumbled his answer, continuing to click his pen. He didn't really want to do either of the options at the moment and was hoping Cyrus would give him something more interesting than he had been. Cryptor really wanted out of the lab, but knew better than to ask again. He didn't want to hear that big (really not that big) rant from Cyrus again about how he wasn't ready. Cyrus nodded and went to fetch the flashcards they had been working with. It was a rather large deck and they were only one third of the way through it.

"You'll be done with this soon enough, then you'll get to-"

"Mister Borg, that room you wanted us to prepare is done." An employee said with his face poking through the door. "It's ready for use any time."

"Oh, that's good." Cyrus said, setting the flashcards back down. "Cryptor, change of plans. Follow me." With that being said, he drove his mech chair over to the door. Cryptor jumped in surprise when Cyrus moved away, his pen dropping to the table. He didn't know what the worker said to Cyrus, he had just come to ignore them all the time. Shifting his eyesight between the walking away inventor and the flashcards, Cryptor hurriedly got up, running after Cyrus to catch up.

"What are we doing? Are we leaving the lab?" He asked seeing where Cyrus was headed.

"Yes and you get to learn something new, that's what we're doing." Cyrus stated as he lead Cryptor right out of the lab and towards the nearest elevator. "I have a feeling that you will find this more… entertaining." Cryptor paused at the exit of the lab for a brief moment when Cyrus left, use to stopping all the time when Cyrus left before he followed him out. Leaving the lab felt weird for him, but he didn't care. He desperately wanted out of that room and to do something different for a change. Based off of Cyrus' response, Cryptor guessed that Cyrus wouldn't say until they actually got to it, to his disappointment.

Cyrus took Cryptor to one of the higher floors. There he led Cryptor to a room with two metal mechanical doors. They opened automatically. Inside the room there was a martial arts course. There were targets along the walls and hung from the ceiling. There was even a weapons rack on one side of the room, though there were no weapons at this point.

"You'll be starting your physical training today." Cyrus chuckled. "It's more fast-paced than flashcards." Cryptor stood in the doorway in awe at everything in front of him. He didn't have anything to say about what he was seeing, but he REALLY liked it. He really wanted to use it all right away, but… He didn't exactly know how…

"I can't exactly teach you myself, but I have a program that will teach you what you need to know." Cyrus stated, steering his chair right inside. He motioned for Cryptor to follow him inside. There was a large projector screen for the demonstrations. Cryptor immediately followed after Cyrus, so quickly that he stumbled and had to recover himself to keep from falling. Cyrus chuckled and motioned for Cryptor to take his place on the training ground while he went up to a control room. Once he was there, he flipped on the projector. The program started up. "I'll start it when you're ready, Cryptor." Cyrus called though a microphone. Cryptor jumped at the microphones volume, turning his gaze from Cyrus and back to the projection.

"Y-yeah." He stuttered in response to Cyrus. "Ready….I guess." He added the last two words in a very low volume. The program was started up when Cryptor said that he was ready. It started with basic combat moves. Basic formation and tips for punching effectively. Cyrus watched Cryptor as he watched, hoping that he would get it. Cryptor watched the program very carefully, taking in everything it showed, not forgetting a single detail it told. Cyrus watched as Cryptor took in the information.

"You can practice the moves on that dummy to your right." Cyrus said into a microphone. Cryptor nodded, turning his head to look at the dummy. Walking up to it slowly, he poked it cautiously to watch it before backing away from it and practice balance instead of doing the moves that the program had shown him. Cryptor's curiosity made Cyrus laugh. Cryptor was still so naive and new to everything. After Cryptor had done various balance poses to prep himself for the programs task, he began to do the systems routine, with fair easiness, but a few mess ups as well. As soon as he would mess up on it though, he would immediately take notice and keep attempting until he got it right. As expected, Cryptor was not perfect right off the bat, but he had great potential.

"Keep up the good work, Cryptor." Cyrus praised through the microphone. "Once you have this down, we'll move on." Cryptor looked up at Cyrus briefly before he nodded, working again on the routine until he had it down perfectly. It took time to get it perfect. When Cryptor had it, Cyrus moved them on to the next move. The next move was basic kicking. Cryptor easily got though the basic programs, leaving him with nothing else to do. He frowned, wanting to do more. It was amazing how relatively fast Cryptor got through the basics. He seemed to be a natural when it came to combat. Cyrus was a bit dumbfounded by how good Cryptor was with no prior training. Cyrus cleared his throat and reached for the microphone.

"I guess you get to move up to the advanced moves." He had not expected to be moving on so quickly. He let the program move on to a more difficult move. It involved kicking the target after blocking a punch. Cyrus flipped a switch and the dummy began to move, though it stayed in one place. Cryptor jumped back immediately when the dummy started moving. Looking at it for several moments he noticed the dummies kept a repetitive pattern, one of its flaws unfortunately. Although he knew of its pattern, he wasn't quite skilled enough to get past it its speed. It took him several attempts to succeed in the more difficult move, but eventually he got it down, like the others. He was persistent in this training and didn't want to fail. It was fun. Cryptor appeared to be much more interested by this training. It kept him focused. When being taught what things are, it was sometimes hard to keep Cryptor motivated. Though the more difficult move took him longer to adapt to, Cryptor was still progressing much faster than Cyrus had expected. He did not want Cryptor to get too far in physical training when he was still learning social skills, especially with his current attitude. Once Cryptor had the current move down, Cyrus shut everything down and made his way out of the control room.

"Let's call it a day." He said with a sigh. "We can pick up tomorrow after you finish some of your other studies..." Cryptor frowned, looking around at everything in disappointment when Cyrus was calling it off.

"One more?" He asked, hoping to get a little more time in the room. Cyrus stayed silent for a moment. Cryptor really seemed to enjoy physical training. Cryptor rarely left that room anymore, so it was almost like a treat to him. Cyrus sighed in defeat and gave in, returning to the control room and flipping on everything that needed to be on. Cryptor smiled big when Cyrus turned back to the control room, almost jumping up and down in excitement and turned to the screen quickly to see what it would show him. The program was started up right where they left off. Seeing what it displayed once it powered on, Cryptor immediately got to work on learning the new skill. The next move was more difficult than the last; it involved three kicks to the head on the target followed by a quick switch and a kick with the other leg. The task of learning the skill was taking longer than it was the others for Cryptor, as he was naturally skilled in fighting; he wasn't exactly the quickest at the moment. He couldn't manage to land the kicks fast enough, and to his dislike, it didn't look like he was going to get it down anytime soon. Speed was a quality he was lacking at the moment and he really didn't like that he couldn't get the move right. It was frustrating him.

"Keep it up." Cyrus said through the microphone when he noticed Cryptor becoming more frustrated. "You'll get it sooner or later." He would let Cryptor continue for a while longer before taking him back to the lab for his other studies. Cryptor grumbled with a nod at Cyrus, keeping his eyes on the dummy harshly. Finally giving the move another effort, he tried desperately hard to get himself to move faster, his leg jamming up on him in the middle of a kick, resulting in him to fall to the ground with a gasp, then getting his head banged a few times by the moving dummy as he sat stuck on the floor. He frowned, wincing each time the wood came in contact with his head, but his hands were refusing to move so he could pull himself away. As soon as Cyrus saw Cryptor's fall, he fumbled to shut the dummy off. Everything was shut down again and Cyrus rushed out to check on Cryptor. He hoped that Cryptor did not need any repairs, though it was likely that he did. Cyrus went right to checking Cryptor for damages.

"Can you move?" He asked with a very concerned voice. Cryptor frowned when Cyrus came up to him and he couldn't move his body an inch, With a shake of his head, the only part of him that seemed to be working right, he answered.

"Only my head." Embarrassingly as it was, he had to say it. Cyrus frowned at the answer he received.

"You must've jammed yourself." He sighed. "I'll get you fixed, don't worry." Cryptor frowned, looking up at Cyrus questioningly.

"That… won't require turning me off… will it?" He asked. If it did, there's nothing he'd do about it and would face the situation, but he would prefer not to have to. Cyrus sighed and nodded.

"Yes." He answered. He knew that Cryptor did not like being shut down. "I'll try to get you fixed as soon as possible. It shouldn't take long."

Cryptor nodded, looking back down. "Don't take long."

"I won't take long." Cyrus promised. Then reaching down to open the compartment with the power switch, Cyrus shut Cryptor down. He called for some help getting Cryptor to the lab. Once Cryptor was taken to the lab, Cyrus went to work. The repairs took an hour or two due to some difficulties. Once everything was in order, Cyrus powered Cryptor on once more.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite his accident, Cryptor enjoyed physical training more than anything else. It had been roughly two weeks since he had gotten repaired and Cryptor almost immediately wanted to get back to the sparing room. Cyrus only allowed him to practice combat after he completed some of his vocabulary and social training.

As the days went by, Cyrus let his workers try to interact with Cryptor and teach him social activities. Though Cryptor did not care for it, he spoke and interacted with the staff. He was motivated to do so with promises to do physical training afterwards. He would often try to rush through to get to the sparing room as soon as possible. During those two weeks, Cryptor had matured mentally as well as physically. He understood more and was able to move with more ease. He had even gotten faster and more skilled with his movements than before. He was progressing rather quickly. Today Cryptor was promised to move up from advanced combat to basic weapon handling. Cyrus made sure to stress that Cryptor would only use weapons in the city if he absolutely needed to before Cryptor finished his other studies. Cyrus also taught Cryptor proper weapon safety, not wanting him to get hurt again. He even stressed that Cryptor had to obey every one of Cyrus' orders when handling weapons. Once Cryptor seemed to have that understood, Cyrus went right to the control room and lowered some targets from the ceiling. While Cyrus prepared the room, Cryptor went towards the newly filled weapon rack, grazing his fingers over each weapon as he passed until he came to a stop and unhooked the first weapon he wanted to try. Cyrus had explained to him how everything on the display worked and honestly the bazooka seemed the most appealing, but due to Cyrus, he decided it would be best to start out with the smaller ones, just to keep Cyrus from freaking out about safety. Having taken a sai at the moment he spun it in his fingers for several moments, analyzing it. Turning back around after several moments, he walked back out to the center of the sparing room.

Cyrus bit his lip when he watched Cryptor spin the sai around on his finger. It was like watching a child playing with scissors, though that was not the case. Seeing how the sai was the first weapon he picked, Cyrus flipped a few of the controls and raised a few more dummies from the floor. They were cylindrical dummies with targets painted on them. Cyrus cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone.

"You… You may give the sai a try whenever you're ready." Looking up at Cyrus in the room for a few moments, Cryptor turned back around with a huff. Even with a pathetic weapon Cyrus was freaking out. Cyrus knew that his extreme caution was trying Cryptor's patience; he just could not help it. He worried about Cryptor. It was hard to not worry about Cryptor when he got himself hurt so often. Even though Cryptor knew it was his first time using a weapon ever, he knew for a fact that the sai was nothing compared to all the others on the wall. Immediately, he walked towards the dummy, doing a few soft test swings at it before he actually started doing damage. Cryptor continued to practice with the sai, even after he got a good feel on the weapon. As he practiced, he could feel Cyrus' eyes burning into him. Cyrus, to Cryptor, was over protective, it made Cryptor question if he would actually let go of him when he went to do the job he was made for. Finally getting bored of the sai, he shot a quick glance over his shoulder at Cyrus before he started to make up more complex, and admittedly crazy, ways to use it.

There was no doubt that Cryptor would one day be a force to be reckoned with. It scared Cyrus to know how well he did on building a droid for fighting. Cryptor's personality as of late had Cyrus more worried than anything. Though he hated to think this, Cyrus wondered if it was possible that Cryptor would actually put people in danger… Cyrus could only pray that his fears would never come true. Cryptor frowned after a while of messing around with the sai before throwing it on the ground. Turning around, Cryptor crossed his arms, looking up at Cyrus in the control room.

"Should I try another?" He yelled up at him.

"Uh…Crap." Cyrus murmured to himself as he reached for the microphone. "Yes… Might as well get you use to a few today before we head back." Cryptor nodded at the response, walking back over to the weapons. Tempted to pick up the bazooka, he hesitated by it for several moments before he walked away, grabbing up some katanas instead. Cyrus could tell that the bazooka was the most interesting to Cryptor. He seemed to light up when Cyrus had explained what it did and how it work earlier. Even now he looked like he wanted to use the bazooka, though he chose the katanas. Cryptor continued to practice with the katanas throughout the rest of his time in the sparing room. The blades to him were better than the sai and he was enjoying them more. Finally Cyrus called off the practice, and they had to leave. Cyrus did not want Cryptor to advance too far with weapons. Not quite yet.

"You did a great job today." Cyrus said with a nervous chuckle and a crooked smile. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before glancing at Cryptor. "You've come a long way since you were first powered on." Cryptor scoffed at the memories of his past, following behind Cyrus in silence. Cyrus did not expect anything less or more than the response he had received. Cryptor had become a very moody person. He would often scoff like he had when he did not want to speak to Cyrus.

"Look, I'm sorry, that I'm so cautious." Cyrus said flat out. "I just don't want you to get damaged again. Not when you've come so far." Cryptor ended up scoffing again, crossing his arms.

"I think you've made that very obvious." He snorted, shifting a glance at Cyrus. "Honestly though, at this point I'd think you'd be able to trust that I'm not going to hurt myself. It's not like I want to be repaired and I enjoy blowing circuits."

"I…I know that you're more capable and independent now, but accidents happen." Cyrus sighed with a shake of his head. "Though perhaps I'm being a bit too cautious."

"Are you just now realizing that?" Cryptor sneered, "I swear you're going to have a heart attack as soon as I do as much as touch a doorknob." Cyrus frowned and shook his head.

"I don't worry that much." He muttered. Cryptor had a point though. Cryptor shook his head with a grin on it, keeping himself from laughing, following Cyrus in silence again. Cyrus took Cryptor back to the lab and let him be. The lab was almost like Cryptor's bedroom, he had even moved things around a bit to suit his needs.

"I have a meeting to head off to, so you have the rest of the day to yourself." Cyrus said with a sigh. Cryptor nodded at Cyrus, once again be imprisoned in the lab. He really hated the lab now. Same thing every day. By now he knew everything in the room and its location, even the useless things he never touched. Some time at night, he had to plug himself into to charge, but that usually didn't take too long and he would have nothing to do the whole time in there. One time he tried beating up at table, but that didn't exactly go over well. The usual things he did were click a pen on the desk, destroy things (though not usually something significant), and stare out the window at the city.

Throughout the night by himself he did most of these things, bored. Even while he charged he just clicked a pen on the ground. He just waited out the night, waiting for Cyrus to get back. Although Cyrus hated keeping Cryptor locked up, he was not sure what would happen if he gave Cryptor free range. He saw no reason to not trust Cryptor though. Perhaps it was about time to give him some freedom...

"Tomorrow, you can start roaming the tower... and we'll see how it works." Cyrus said before he left Cryptor for the night. He would have a few rules of course, but not many. If it did not work out, Cyrus would come up with a better way to keep Cryptor from feeling cooped up.

The next day, Cyrus let Cryptor have free range of the tower. He was only forbidden from entering the lobby and the assembly room or any other area open the general public. Cyrus also asked Cryptor to keep an eye on the time. The usual study and training time were important to keep track of. The last rules were for Cryptor to stay out of the sparing room unless he had a staff member on hand and no weapons without Cyrus. Figuring those were reasonably rules, Cyrus left Cryptor to roam almost free while he attended to business. Right around the time for study, Cyrus met Cryptor back at the lab. He wanted to ask Cryptor how his free day went, but Cryptor was not quite there yet.

Cryptor could not express how happy he was that Cyrus had given him free reign of the tower, even though the sparing room was a bit of a disappointment. Regardless, he ended up exploring the floor it was on just out of curiosity. Keeping track of the time, it took him a while to get back, accidentally taking the wrong corner once. Arriving not very happily back to the lab though, he saw that Cyrus was already in there and he was a few minutes late. Cyrus greeted Cryptor with a wave and his usual crooked smile when he entered the lab.

"So, how was your day?" Cyrus asked, tapping his finger on the handles of his chair. "Did you enjoy walking around the tower?"

"It was okay. More entertaining than just sitting in here." Cryptor shrugged, grudgingly walking over to Cyrus.

"How many floors did you explore?" Cyrus asked with a tilt of his head. Surely Cryptor had explored many of the levels, though Cyrus could bet money that Cryptor had stayed near the sparing room at some point.

"One." Cryptor answered bluntly, sitting in his usual spot.

"The one with the sparing room, huh?" Cyrus chuckled and shook his head.

"Yes." Cryptor nodded, picking up a pen and spinning it on its tip with his index finger.

"Did you get anyone to supervise so you could spare today?" Cyrus asked, pushing the glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"No." Cyrus laughed low at the androids response, shaking his head.

"Well, would you like to head there now?" Cyrus asked with a raised brow. Cryptor looked up at Cyrus, dropping the pen.

"Yes."

"Alright, let's get going then." Cyrus said with a smile, already heading to the door. "Feel free to try whatever weapons you want today." He added before he made it through the door.

Cryptor smiled the whole way to the sparing room, immediately going towards the weapons and grabbing up bazooka. Walking back, he saw Cyrus in the control room before he smirked. "How was I supposed to hold this again?" He yelled before pulling it up on his shoulder, pointing it directly at Cyrus in the room. "Like this?" He laughed to himself, seeing Cyrus in the room before he turned back around to look where the targets would pop down from. Cryptor's teasing nearly gave Cyrus a heart attack. He nearly ducked when Cryptor pointed the bazooka at him.

Clutching his chest with one hand and reaching for the microphone with the other.

"That's not funny." Then, with a sigh, he lowered the targets from the ceiling. Cryptor laughed more.

"The fact that you think I'd actually shoot at you is a little disappointing." He yelled over his shoulder back at Cyrus before getting into the correct stance to use the large weapon. Cryptor had a point, but it was still not funny. With the targets down, Cryptor shot the bazooka for the first time, being a bit surprised by the backfire and missing the target clearly and it shooting into the wall on the opposite side of the room. Blinking a few times, Cryptor smiled before shooting it another three times, finally hitting the target and demolishing it. Cyrus laughed to himself as he watched Cryptor miss the first few times. It was always fun to watch Cryptor learn new things. He always caught on fast though.

Cryptor loved the new weapon just as he expected. Loading yet another missile in it, Cryptor fired the Bazooka at the next target, but as soon as he set it off, he knew something was wrong with it. The missile didn't launch from the bazooka's body and stayed inside, still ticking down to explode. Rapidly, Cryptor bashed on the trigger to get it out but with no luck, it wouldn't launch. Finally giving up, he started to let go to abandon it, but right when his hand started to release, the missile exploded. Once its fire and smoke cleared, Cryptor shook his head, surprised that he was still operating at full capacity, though his vision in his right eye was very messed up, he'd even say he was blind in it.

"Cryptor!" As soon as the smoke cleared, Cyrus was by Cryptor's side. He was horrified to see Cryptor's silicon skin stripped off his right side from his face to his lower stomach. His right eye was wrecked from the looks of it as well. "Cryptor, are you okay?" Cyrus asked quickly. He knew that he would have to repair Cryptor.

"I'm fine." Cryptor grumbled, going to being his right hand up to his head before he gasped at the sight of it, stumbling a step back. Quickly turning his head, farther than usual, to look at Cyrus, he took a cautious step away from him. He probably looked really bad and Cyrus would have to shut him off for a while just to fix everything.

"You were damaged quite a bit, Cryptor." Cyrus stated as he slowly steered his chair closer to Cryptor. "You'll need repairs..." Cyrus hated to shut Cryptor down, but Cryptor needed to be repaired. He could not be left like this. Cryptor quickly stumbled further back from Cyrus when he approached him, then getting into a defensive stance he had learned when doing physical training.

"Don't power me off again."

"Cryptor, I have to. Please don't make this difficult." Cyrus pleaded. It hurt to see Cryptor in such a sorry state.

"I don't want to be powered off." Cryptor shook his head, slowly backing away in the defensive pose.

"Cryptor, please. You need to be repaired." Cyrus begged.

"No." He frowned before he quickly turned around and darted off, out of the room to a hiding spot he had found earlier on his earlier exploration. Cryptor was much faster than the six legged chair. Cyrus lost sight of Cryptor. This was a huge problem. They did not yet know the full amount of damage Cryptor had suffered. Cryptor could be in serious trouble if he was not found. Passing a staff member in the hall, Cyrus filled him in and asked him to help search. It took some time, but they were able to determine that Cryptor was still on the current floor. There weren't many places to hide, but the few places that he could hide in were not very easy to find.

Cryptor stayed hidden for a while, looking at his skinned hand and chest, analyzing all the damages. Finally after a while though, he sulked out of this hiding place and began wandering the empty halls. Cyrus had assembled a small number of his staff, about four members, to help search for Cryptor. The small search party split up to search for Cryptor. Cyrus needed to get Cryptor fixed.

Cyrus, who was alone, turned down a hall. He felt bad for Cryptor. The poor guy did not like being shut down, yet he constantly needed to be shut down. Sighing, Cyrus rounded another corner. Cryptor strode through the halls grumpily, he really didn't want to be repaired but he couldn't exactly hide from Cyrus either. One way or another, Cyrus would turn him off for the repairs, as much as Cryptor protested. Walking down a hall he halted in his footsteps quickly at the sound of a mechanical chair clacking though the halls. Taking a few steps back, Cryptor turned and darted into the nearest hiding spot, hoping that Cyrus wouldn't find him. Cyrus turned yet another corner, catching only a glimpse of a figure darting away. Cyrus frowned and furrowed his brows.

"Cryptor." Cyrus called with a gentle tone, continuing down toward where he had seen the blurry figure. "You have to get the repairs... You can stay powered on while we take you to the lab if that helps you feel better." Cryptor frowned in his hiding place, looking down at his feet.

"There's nothing wrong with me." He muttered, still hiding.

"Your eye has been destroyed, Cryptor." Cyrus stated, stopping halfway through the hall. He knew just where Cryptor was from hearing his voice. Cyrus would not force Cryptor to come with him. He would use reason. "Would you mind telling me why you don't want to power off for a short period of time?"

"It's not going to be short." Cryptor mumbled, looking at his skinned hand.

"I promise that it will be as short as possible." Cyrus said gently. "I'll even let you stay on while we get the parts."

Cryptor sighed, finally stepping out of his hiding spot. "Keep me on as long as possible." He frowned, avoiding eye contact with Cyrus. Cyrus nodded and looked down as well.

"I promise I will." he said with a sigh. "Come with me." With that, Cyrus lead Cryptor back to the lab and had him sit on the table. Cyrus went right to assessing the damage. Nothing seemed to be too broken in the arm or the torso, just a few bolts and screws needed to be replaced. The biggest issue was the eye. The whole thing was scrap.

"I will have to figure out a way to fix your eye. Other than that, the repairs are relatively simple." Cyrus stated. He brainstormed for a bit before steering himself straight towards a desk, grabbing blueprint paper and a white pencil. Then he returned to Cryptor's side and began sketching out a few ideas. He kept going until he thought up a design for an eye piece that would cover the right half of his face. At least most of it.

"What do you think of this?" Cyrus asked as he tapped the design. Cryptor twisted his head at the diagram, looking at it intently. He didn't understand exactly what he was looking at or what it would do for him but nodded anyway. He trusted that Cyrus knew what he was doing. "I'll get the parts and get it all set up before I power you off." Cyrus said with a smile. "You sit tight. I'll return shortly." With that, Cyrus steered himself right out of the lab and headed down to fetch everything he needed. He soon returned and set everything on the table next to his tools, getting right to work. The designs were basic, but would work well. Not to mention that they were sturdy.

Once the eyepiece was mostly constructed, in a few pieces to be assembled while fixing them to Cryptor's face, Cyrus turned to Cryptor and sighed. "Are you ready?" he asked with a gentle smile. Cryptor watched Cyrus work carefully, interested on how he pieced everything together. Sitting his hands back on the table, he frowned at the question he was asked.

"No." Cryptor's response earned a frowned from the inventor. He sighed and shook his head.

"It will take approximately twenty minutes to fasten the eyepiece to your eye and five to ten minutes to tighten any loose bolts or screws." He explained. "The part that would take the longest would be the new skin." Cryptor frowned, looking at his hand.

"Don't do it then. It's not necessary right?"

"Hm... I suppose it would be okay to leave you without it." Cyrus said with a nod if his head. "Then you'll only be out for about thirty minutes or so. Is that okay?" Cryptor nodded.

"Unless you can do it any quicker." He sighed. "Just get this over with." Cyrus nodded and had Cryptor lie down on the table before he reached over to flip the power switch. Once Cryptor was off, Cyrus went to work. Cryptor was lucky to not have lost a limb. He was lucky to have survived. First he fixed the bolts and screws. A few had been knocked right out, so they needed to be replaced. Not wasting any time after the screws were all tightened, Cyrus went right to removing the damaged eye. He carefully detached the robotic eye from the wires connecting to his head.

Once the eye was removed, Cyrus paused. He thought for a moment before he went to fetch something from another room. He would have to be quick, not wanting Cryptor to be off any longer than he needed to be. He soon returned with a black hood, which would have completed Cryptor's uniform when he was ready to be sent out. He slipped it over Cryptor's head and went back to work. Cyrus took the first part of Cryptor's new eyepiece and began connecting the wires. The eyepiece was then fastened to Cryptor's head. Then, without delay, Cyrus attached the second part of the eyepiece. This part connected to the optic sensor and was fastened to Cryptor's face. It wrapped around to the back of his head and over the top. It took no more than twenty-two minutes to get the everything in order. As soon as he was finished, Cyrus powered Cryptor on again.

As soon as Cryptor was powered on he felt the bulk added to his head as well as the fabric. Blinking a bit as he tried to process the instant change as his eyes and hearing readjusted. At least he had complete vision again. Bringing his hand up to the new eyepiece, he felt it for a few moments before he slipped his hand to the fabric covering his face. Finally moving his hand away from his face he looked at Cyrus.

"How long did you take?" He asked before furrowing his one remaining eyebrow at the feel of the mask against his mouth, huffing at the fabric, then plucking at it with his fingers. Cyrus looked up at the clock on the wall and sighed.

"About twenty minutes or so." He answered. "How does it feel?" Cryptor nodded, pleased to hear the time, but still plucking at the mask in distaste.

"Weird." Cryptor answered bluntly. Cyrus laughed a little at Cryptor's reply.

"It will probably take time to get used to." He said, scratching the back of his head. "You know, the eyepiece was originally a part of your design, but I was advised to cut it." Cryptor turned his vision to Cyrus again, looking at him quizzically at the statement, touching the eyepiece again. "The eyepiece does more than just see." Cyrus chuckled, smiling at Cryptor with his usual crooked smile. "I won't tell you exactly what it does just yet though."

"Oh?" Cryptor questioned, finally swinging his legs over the side of the table. "And what if I figure it out on my own?"

"You would be quite surprised by what happens and I will likely have to pay to have whatever you break repaired." Cyrus chuckled. "Don't try to figure it out. I'll let you try it out soon enough." Cryptor frowned, but nodded.

"Seems stupid not to know what I can do…" He muttered to himself.

"I'll tell you what it is if you promise not to try it yet." Cyrus said with a little laugh at the start. Cryptor shook his head almost immediately.

"No. That would take all the fun out of it." Cyrus shook him head and gave Cryptor's knee a pat.

"That it would."


	5. Chapter 5

For the past few days, Cryptor would be constantly trying to figure out what the new eyepiece did for him. He had already adapted to all his changes, but whenever he was left alone he would immediately get to fiddling with the piece and searching for answers. Even though Cyrus had told him not to try and figure it out, he was anyway. Cryptor wasn't exactly the best at waiting and couldn't stand not knowing. Cyrus had offered to tell him but only if he promised not to use it, but Cryptor assumed that if he figured out, he'd want to use it.

With a frown, he continued focusing on the eye piece as he sat with his back against the window, fiddling with it hoping to get it to do something besides see. This was probably the 8th time he had been left alone by Cyrus. It was early morning right now though and Cryptor knew he would have to give up again soon and Cyrus would enter at any moment. About to give up he made one last effort to figure it out before a laser charged up and blasted out, flying into a computer across the room. Quickly jumping to his feet, Cryptor gawked at what he had caused before touching his eye piece.

Then it hit him what else he had done. Seeing static covering all the screens connected to the console. Quickly, Cryptor scurried over to it and inspecting the huge scorch mark that blasted pretty far into the machine. He had seriously damaged the computer and he would probably get in a lot of trouble for it. Quickly trying to find a way for him to cover it up, Cryptor couldn't find anything or repair it. Frowning, Cryptor stood staring at the blasted hole thoughtfully before he jerked up in attention at the sound of the elevator followed by the buzz and click of Cyrus' chair. Quickly, Cryptor slammed his back again the scorched hole trying to hide it, but having no way to cover the static covered screen. When Cyrus entered the room, he greeted Cryptor like usual.

"Hello, Cryptor. How are you today?" He asked. Cryptor looked at Cyrus nervously when he entered.

"Good. Very good. Had a terrific night." He answered very quickly. "You know, why don't you go do other things today, leave me in here alone. I can practice with the flash cards or something." Upon hearing Cryptor's response, Cyrus raised a brow.

"Oh, I should?" He questioned, steering his chair a bit forward. "And you'll do the flashcards? All by yourself? And you're volunteering to do this?" Cryptor nodded quickly, shooing Cyrus away with his hand.

"Yes, yes, and yes. You just, go do other things now."

"Uh-huh... Show me what's behind your back, Cryptor." Cyrus said with a smirk.

Cryptor looked over his shoulder at the computer, his arms crossed. Pointing over his shoulder with his thumb briefly before re-crossing his arms again he spoke.

"Just the computer, isn't it kind of obvious." Cyrus laughed and shook his head.

"You figured out what your eye does, haven't you?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Cryptor was a bad liar, so it was obvious. Cryptor frowned at how easily Cyrus figured it out.

"N-No." He shook his head. "No, I didn't"

"You're a terrible at lying." Cyrus sighed. "It's fine if you did figure it out." Cryptor looked down at his feet for a couple of moments before sighing, moving away from the burnt hole in the computer. Staring at it, shamefully, for several moments, he looked back to Cyrus sheepishly. Looking at the busted computer, Cyrus sighed. He looked up at Cryptor with furrowed brows, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I told you that I would have to repair something when you figured it out." He sighed, shaking his head. Cryptor looked so ashamed of his accident, so it was hard to be mad at him. "At least it wasn't something really expensive," Cyrus added, shrugging his shoulders. "It'll be alright." Cryptor frowned before he cleared his throat and stood up straighter.

"It is a cool feature." Cyrus smiled and nodded. He took hold of his handlebars.

"Yes, I figured that you would like it." He agreed. "And, since you have figured it out, I'll let you start practicing with it today." Cryptor frowned looking down at the ground for a few moments.

"Yes…But about that." He sighed. "I don't exactly, know how I used it?"

"Well, we'll figure it out then." Cyrus chuckled. "Chip up." Cryptor nodded, stiffening is posture again. "I'm free right now; we could go try it now." Cyrus chuckled, fixing his glasses. "I think it would be okay to let you try for a bit. How does that sound?" Cryptor nodded again, turning to walk past Cyrus and head to the sparing room without a word. The disabled man followed Cryptor up to the sparing room. Once they arrived, Cyrus went up to raise a few small targets from the floor.

"Go ahead and give it another try." Cyrus said into the microphone. Cryptor turned to the targets with a nod, immediately trying to figure out how he did it again. After a while of no success, he decided to sit down on the floor still trying to figure it out. After several attempts he finally growled, dropping his head limp and staring at his legs in frustration.

"It's okay, keep trying." Cyrus said through the microphone. He had faith in Cryptor. He would figure it out sooner or later. Cryptor frowned, picking his head back up and staring harshly at the target again, still attempting to figure it out but kept ending with no success. Cyrus continued to encourage Cryptor to keep trying. They had no luck. Eventually they gave up and started to head back to the lab.

"You'll get it eventually." Cyrus said with a smile. Cryptor grumbled, walking next to Cyrus back to the lab.

"Says they guy who can't even work his legs." He muttered. Cyrus halted as soon as he heard what Cryptor said.

"H-how could you say that?" Cyrus muttered, brows furrowed together. "I can't help that my legs don't work."

"Of course you can't." Cryptor scoffed, adding the next part quietly. "It's pathetic with everything else you can do…"

"How is it pathetic? I haven't let my disability get in my way. I have accomplished so much and never let it stop me from reaching the top." Cyrus retorted with a huff near the end.

"And as much as you made have you even attempted to fix it? Doesn't your chair ever get in the way?" Cryptor argued. Cyrus glared at Cryptor. He did not like Cryptor's attitude. Cryptor had quickly became a cruel brat.

"You can't exactly fix what's wrong with my legs." Cyrus shot back. He was getting rather upset. Cryptor's insults and snide comments were making him feel like garbage. "You don't need to take your frustration out on me just because you can't figure something out."

"Tch." Cryptor snorted, turning his gaze to the ground away from Cyrus.

"Why don't you go to the lab for tonight and stay there." Cyrus said before speeding off past Cryptor. He needed to figure out how to fix that attitude of Cryptor's. It would be a huge problem.


	6. Chapter 6

After leaving Cryptor, Cyrus went up to his office and thought. He had to cancel a few meetings, needing to be by himself for a while. He had a lot on his mind. As he thought to himself, he glared down at his useless legs with teary eyes. Cryptor's words stung, even hours later. He had not loathed his disability since he was younger. He hated himself at the moment. Cryptor's attitude needed to be fixed. He could not go around insulting people like that if he was to protect the citizens of Ninjago city. It was time that Cyrus started treating Cryptor like an android and not like a child. It was a hard thought, but Cyrus knew that he had to get Cryptor on the right track again. If Cryptor continued to behave this way, Cyrus would have to shut him down entirely. That was something he wanted to avoid. Cyrus thought about all of the changes he needed to make and extra precautions too. Not having much of a choice, Cyrus set off down to the lab late that night when Cryptor was charging. Cryptor would not like him, but Cryptor needs to be shut down temporarily. Some alterations would be made before he would be turned on again.  
Cyrus entered the lab and made his way over to Cryptor. He said nothing as his chair's legs clicked on the floor. Cryptor jumped in alert when the door opened to the lab, seeing Cyrus enter the room, looking at him drowsily due to the effects of charging. Immediately he knew something was wrong, he wasn't sure what, but he knew. Looking at Cyrus and his creators strange and eerily silence, Cryptor drowsily murmured.

"What are you doing here so late at night?" Cryptor's question went unanswered. This was hard enough for Cyrus to do this. If he had to say it out loud, I probably would not be able to go through with it. Cryptor would hate him for this, but it could not be helped. It was the only way to make some important alterations. Cyrus paused when he reached Cryptor. He was having second thoughts. Pushing them away, Cyrus reached over and flipped open the compartment with Cryptor's power button. As soon at the compartment was opened, Cryptor knew what Cyrus was going to do. Immediately, Cryptor tried to push away all drowsiness as it replaced with fear as he scrambled back, pushing himself against the wall as much as possible. With his power cord plugged in, Cryptor was very limited to where he could move and what he could do. He was left very vulnerable. Terrified, Cryptor looked up at Cyrus.

"Wha-What are you doing?" Cryptor gasped. "S-Stop! Why are you powering me off? What did I do?" It was hard to do this, but Cyrus had to. Cryptor could not insult people like he did earlier. His attitude was far too mean and Cyrus could tell that he would only get worse if he was left without alterations. He also needed to take a few extra precautions to make sure that Cryptor could not hurt citizens or run off. It was a hard decision to make, but it had to be done. He forced himself to get closer to Cryptor, reaching over towards the power switch. Cryptor had backed himself against a wall, there was no running from this.

"I'm so sorry, Cryptor." He choked out before he hit the power switch. After powering Cryptor off, Cyrus went to work. He first made the modifications to Cryptor's body, wanting to get them out of the way. He changed Cryptor's power switch with one that could be remotely shut off. A tracking chip was also implanted in Cryptor so that his whereabouts would always be known. Once his body was modified, Cyrus uploaded Cryptor's AI to a computer for some much needed alterations. He went right to work, trying to locate the part of his coding that made him behave so poorly. After Cryptor's AI had been uploaded to the computer and Cyrus worked on him, Cryptor eventually became conscious again, though he was confused. Everything was different, and he knew for sure he wasn't in his body. He couldn't see anything for a few moments before code came into vision, but he couldn't really see anything, just a monitor, watching it click and scroll in front of him. Cryptor frowned, forced in the alien world with no escape. It scared him.

-What's going on?

-Why can't I move?

Cryptor's mind jumped in surprise seeing a new window pop up in his vision. Focusing on it he saw the words on it were showing his thoughts in his head.

At that point Cryptor thought he knew what was going on.

-Am…

-Am I in a computer?

Cyrus was not all that surprised when Cryptor began speaking to him through text. Pixal had gone through something similar when he had to fix a flaw in her programming. Sighing to himself, Cyrus clicked the text box and began typing.

~Yes, you are in a computer.

~I have to rewrite some of your coding.

Cyrus went back to his coding. What Cyrus said alerted Cryptor, scaring him even more.

-What?

-Why?

His thoughts popped up into the log.

-What's wrong with my coding?

-Did I do something wrong?

Cyrus frowned, feeling worse for what he was doing.

~Your personality is what's wrong.

~I can't have you insulting people.

~If the citizens of Ninjago don't like you, I might end up having to shut you off for good.

~I want to avoid that.

He glanced out at the rising sun and wiped the sleep from his tired eyes. He had been up all night. Cryptor flinched, his fear still rising.

-Why?

-Don't change me.

Seeing Cyrus continue to work with his coding. Staying silent for a few moments Cryptor began speaking again through the log.

-Stop.

-Just talk to me.

-Why didn't you just tell me?

-Stop.

He stayed silent again for a few more moments.

-…Please…

As Cryptor begged, Cyrus slowly stopped typing. His brows furrowed and he frowned. His full attention turned back to Cryptor, leaving the coding as he typed.

~You haven't been responding to talking as of late.

~I wasn't going to change too much. I promise you that.

~I just needed to fix that attitude.

Cyrus paused and looked down at the keyboard.

~I'm sorry.

Cryptor paused, staring at Cyrus' words on the screen without responding for a while. It didn't look like he'd be able to change Cyrus' mind.

-I'm scared.

Finally he had something else in the log staring at it for several moments. He didn't want to change and the thought of it was terrifying him. Cyrus stared at Cryptor's last message. He shook his head and tore his eyes from the screen, looking down at his lap. He was having a change of heart. How could he do this to Cryptor? He felt like a monster.

Fixing his glasses, Cyrus looked back up at the screen and began typing again.

~I don't want to do it.

~I'm so sorry.

He wanted to just stop all of this, but he had to.

~Forgive me.

Not wanting to get talked out of it, Cyrus closed the chat log. He went back to coding, trying to not to change his mind. Cyrus closing out of the window just made Cryptor mad and popped it right back up.

-Don't close out of the window!

-You can't just block me out and keep me trapped in here!

Cryptor stopped, deciding that those last statements might not go over to well with Cyrus.

-Please get me out of here.

-Don't change me.

-I don't like this place.

-I don't want to forget anything, or get morphed into something I'm not, or whatever it is you're doing.

-It's not like I can go into your mind and change you.

-It's not fair.

-Stop.

Cyrus tried to ignore Cryptor as he went to change the code. He only made a small change before giving in. The change he made would make Cryptor follow orders better. He left his personality and memories intact.

~I'm going to let you out now.

~I'm sorry for what I've done.

With a sad sigh, Cyrus began returning Cryptor's AI to his body. He was ready for Cryptor to hate him.

As soon as Cryptor was back in his body and on, Cryptor shot up into a sitting position on the table he had been moved to, even before his vision had started working. Quickly hoping off the table he turned a look at Cyrus before taking a step back.

"What did you do to me?" He didn't feel different, but he knew Cyrus had done something to him in there.

"It was nothing significant." Cyrus said as he turned to face Cryptor. "I left your personality intact." Cyrus turned to leave the lab without another word. He was too tired and needed some sleep, though he likely wouldn't get any. Cryptor frowned, quickly running after Cyrus.

"It's not 'nothing significant' if you changed me." Cryptor matched Cyrus' pace following him out of the room. Cryptor looked at him and saw how obviously tired he looked. "I would like to know about myself." Cyrus yawned and shook his head.

"Cryptor, I changed just a small flaw in your code." He sighed. "It was nothing to be worried about." Cryptor frowned not believing Cyrus, but could tell he wasn't going to tell him. Trudging behind Cyrus Cryptor thought, really hoping that it wasn't something too significant.

"I guess I should thank that you didn't change my memories and everything." He muttered.

"I want you to actually try to socialize with my employees today." Cyrus said with a tired tone. "You need to get better at talking to people. No insulting them or yelling at them... I'll supervise." Cyrus was incredibly tired, but he needed to see if the change he made worked. Cryptor's ability to listen had only been turned up a bit more. Cyrus did not see a need to make him blindly follow all commands without question, which would have been the highest setting for obeying. Cryptor would hopefully listen and do as Cyrus said. Cryptor frowned and nodded at Cyrus' request.

"When?" He asked.

"Might as well try right now." Cyrus said as he glanced down at his watch. It was about the time some of his staff would be arriving. "Let's head down to the lobby." The tower would not be open to the public until later, so it was safe for Cryptor. Cryptor nodded again. He wasn't exactly looking forward to talking to staff, but he'd do it. His conversations with them didn't always go very well and were always a little awkward.

Once they were in the lobby, Cyrus took Cryptor up to the front counter and waved over a few of his staff members. They all had just arrived and were not exactly busy at the moment. Cyrus asked the three of them to have a conversation with Cryptor and to be careful what they said.

"Hello." A red haired lady greeted Cryptor with a smile. "How was your night?" Cryptor jerked at the ladies question, not wanting to answer it from what had happened. Avoiding eye contact for a few moments as he thought of his answer he looked at her nervously.

"Not exactly the most pleasant one..." He answered accidentally shifting a quick glance at Cyrus across the room.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." She apologized. "Well, maybe you'll have a better day today... I suppose we should introduce ourselves. I'm Dianna, it's very nice to meet you."

"I'm Jackson." Said a man with black hair and a goatee. He motioned to the man next to him and added, "That's Craig."

"Hello." The last of the three said with a wave. Cryptor chucked at how insignificant Craig seemed in their introductions. Giving Craig a very smug look quickly, he turned his vision away from him to the other two, crossing his arms.

"I would assume you all know who I am from Cyrus, but I'm Cryptor." He introduced himself.

"Yeah, we heard a lot about you." Jackson said with a nod. "I bet you're really good at fighting. I've actually wanted to watch you spar since I heard about you and how cool you are."

"Down boy." Dianna chuckled. "No need to totally geek out over him." Cryptor laughed at Jackson and the way Dianna spoke to him. Jackson was an idiot; he had come to that conclusion. Cyrus had specifically stated no insulting though so he kept that in mind.

"It's fun in there." He answered Jackson; he really did enjoy the sparing room a lot. "New weapon practice has been fun, Bazooka especially… Up until the point it exploded on me…" He frowned before shoving that event aside. "At least I got this neat little gadget out of it." He brought his hand up and adjusted his eyepiece. "I still haven't figured it out completely though…"

"That gadget sure looks cool." Dianna said with a laugh. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it sooner or later. Now doodads always take some figuring out."

"What does it do that you need to figure out?" Jackson asked, tilting his head slightly. Craig, who held a clipboard with some papers clipped to it, scribbled on a form. His pen was dead.

"Hey, can you hand me a pencil?" He asked, not exactly specifying who he wanted to get the pencil.

"I fired it once, but I'm not exactly sure how I did it." Cryptor shifted a glance at the counter next to them searching for a pencil as he spoke. Finding one he quickly scooped it up and handed it to Craig without looking as he continued to speak. "It shoots a laser as well as provides vision. Vision was natural though, the added feature is what I'm having trouble with." He frowned thinking for a bit. "Cyrus said I can't use it unless I'm in the sparing room right now."

"I can understand that." Jackson said. "Can't exactly shoot lasers just anywhere. Stuff could break. I bet that it's cool though."

"Maybe if he thought back to the first time he used it, he could figure out what the trick for using it is." Craig said as he continued to write. "Were you doing or thinking anything specific when you got it to work?" Cryptor frowned thinking back.

"No… I was just trying to get it to do something besides see."

"You'll get it." Dianna said with a smile. "Mister Borg can help you figure it out. It's his design after all." The three glanced over at Cyrus once he was mentioned. He looked like he was about to pass out, but was still awake. It was obvious that he had pulled another all-nighter.

"Well, I have to get going and start working." Dianna said with a sigh. She reached over and shook Cryptor's hand. "I wish the best of luck to you. Maybe we will speak sometime later."

"Yeah, I gotta go too. It was nice meeting you," Jackson said with a sigh, wanting to continue talking to Cryptor. "Maybe one of these days I'll get to see you spar." Cryptor nodded and said goodbye to the staff members awkwardly, looking at Craig awkwardly for a few moments before he decided to walk off and over to Cyrus. Cyrus seems so tired though Cryptor didn't think he noticed that Cryptor was standing in front of him. Frowning, he sighed. "Cyrus?"

"Oh... Hello." Cyrus said when he was snapped out of his sleepy trance. "You did good, Cryptor. You did good... D-Do you want to try talking to some more people. Be honest."

"No, I don't." He answered without thinking. Cryptor frowned looking at the half conscious Cyrus in front of him. "Maybe you should go rest Cyrus." Cryptor recommended. "I can stay in the lab until you're recovered."

"That would be nice." Cyrus said with a lazy nod. It was getting harder to keep his eyes open now. Staying up all night would not be so bad if he did not already have an inconsistent sleep schedule. Finding himself with his forehead against his handlebars, Cyrus forced himself to sit up straight. He had dozed off so fast, it was pathetic. "I-I'll go to my office now." He said sluggishly as he turned his chair to head off towards the elevator. Cyrus' eyes closed once again, not even halfway there. Slowly lowering his head, his hands remained on the handles of his chair, resulting in the chair walking around in a tight circle. Cryptor watched Cyrus walk away with a frown before walking over to him once his chair started spinning in circles.

"Cyrus?" Cryptor spoke again to snap him awake. "Do you need help getting there?" Cyrus sat up again when he heard his name again.

"Wha- yeah." Cyrus mumbled. Cryptor sighed, shaking his head. Cyrus probably didn't even hear the question. Cryptor frowned, beginning to guide Cyrus' chair towards the elevator.

"What floor is your office on?" Cryptor asked, he really didn't know, and he only knew how to get to the lab, the lobby and the sparing room.

"Huh? Oh... Th-The hundredth floor." Cyrus answered sleepily. His head was already starting to hang and his eyes dropping again. "The main elevator will take us right to it." Cryptor frowned, still herding Cyrus' chair towards the elevator.

"Cyrus." He repeated again to keep Cyrus awake. Cyrus sat up again.

"Yeah?" he asked with a yawn. It was too hard to stay awake. Cyrus had been up for roughly thirty hours since he had little sleep the night before. Cryptor let out another sigh again, seeing that they weren't exactly close to the elevator. With a frown, he walked over to Cyrus' chair and began to unstrap him from its binds. Cyrus was too tired to get anywhere and they were hardly making any progress. Cryptor just figured it would be easier to carry him. Cyrus woke when Cryptor picked him up. It took him a moment to figure out what was going on.

"Thank you, Cryptor." Cyrus said with another yawn. Cryptor sighed, rolling his eye as he walked over to the elevator with Cyrus. It wasn't exactly a predicament he wanted to be in, but it was going faster. Getting in the elevator with Cyrus, he maneuvered himself in a way to hit the button and hold Cyrus at the same time. Cyrus stirred slightly as Cryptor hit the button for the hundredth floor. He clung to Cryptor sleepily. Cyrus would be grateful for Cryptor's help when he woke up later. Standing in the elevator as it went up floors, Cryptor shifted a glance at Cyrus, to see how conscious he was. Frowning Cryptor shifted his feet right before the elevator came to a stop and he exited.

"Cyrus?" He spoke again to get his attention. Cyrus stirred and opened his eyes when Cryptor said his name.

"Y-yeah?" he questioned as he lifted his head off the android's shoulder. He looked around sleepily. "Oh, we're here... Y-you can leave me here... can you bring my chair up?" Cryptor nodded, searching for a place to put Cyrus that was comfortable before he walked off to go back to the lobby. When the elevator stopped in the lobby, the doors had been opened and people were entering the building. Cryptor frowned debating on getting out. Cyrus had stated before he was never to have human interaction without being permitted. Looking over at the chair, Cryptor quickly jumped in alert seeing a kid crawling around on Cyrus' chair like it was a play set. Quickly darting out of the elevator, he stormed over to the chair.

"Hey! Get off of that, brat!" Cryptor hissed at the kid as he approached the chair. Upon hearing Cryptor shouting at him, the boy gasped and looked up at the android. Cryptor was big and scary to the child. Instead of listening, the boy took hold of the handlebars and tried to steer the chair off. Not knowing the controls, the boy drove the chair in random directions, turning and backing up at random. Cryptor growled, storming up to the kid on the chair and lifted him up with one arm.

"What part of, 'Get off of that' do you not understand?" Cryptor spat dangling the kid in front of him by the back of the shirt. As soon as the boy was snatched off of the chair, his parents stormed up to the android. The mother took her now crying child and from Cryptor. The father gave Cryptor a rough shove back.

"Who do you think you are touching my son like that?" The child's father shouted. Cryptor growled at the shove, clenching his fists to keep from attacking back.

"Why does your idiot son believe he can attempt to steal this?" Cryptor snapped back, motioning to the chair.

"I'm sure he wasn't trying to steal it." The mother hissed. "He's a child and you should not lay a hand on him, tin can."

"Hey. Hey. Let's all settle down." Said an employee as she stepped forward. "No need to make a scene."

"This scrap metal scared my son!" The father shouted at the employee. Then he turned back to Cryptor. "Why don't you jump into traffic, you stupid bag of bolts."

"Of course your son got scared, and he should be! He shouldn't go around toying with fifty thousand dollar pieces of equipment!" Cryptor spat, taking several steps around the chair and closer to the door.

"I'm not done with you, tin man!" The father huffed as he watched Cryptor walk away.

"Cryptor, where are you going?" The female worker asked, going after him. "Cyrus doesn't want you to leave yet." Cryptor growled at the boy's father.

"You should teach your son how to behave better, he's pathetic." Cryptor shouted at him before he stepped out the door, out into the city, ignoring the employee. The employee went after Cryptor with one more joining her.

"Cryptor, return to the tower this instance!" She demanded, grabbing Cryptor by his arm.

"Cryptor, come on," said a familiar voice, "go back inside, buddy." Cryptor tugged his arm from her grip, ignoring the people who spoke to him.

"I need to do something first." He stated, walking straight for the road. Continuing without stopping he walked up to it, and right when a car passed he started to step out into it.

"Cryptor!" Jackson shouted as Cryptor stepped out into traffic. He grabbed Cryptor and pulled him away from the street. He was a little late. Cryptor's leg was scraped by a car that passed by. Jackson pulled Cryptor back towards the tower, having some trouble due to Cryptor's weight. "Why would you try to walk into the street?" He questioned.

"That man inside told him to." The other employee noted. "Does he just do what people tell him to?" Cryptor frowned. His leg had been damaged noticeably, sparking a little even, but it wasn't enough to completely paralyze the leg. Pulling his arm away from Jackson, he started walking back to the building like nothing had happened, leaving the two employees behind.

"I need to get Cyrus his chair…" The two employees exchanged glanced before Jackson grabbed Cryptor once more, holding him in a head lock. The female employee took this as a chance to power Cryptor off before he could start struggling too much.

"Get him up to the lab and I'll meet you up there." Said the female worker. "I'll return the chair."

"Alright." Jackson said as he began to drag Cryptor off to an elevator, right past the angry family. Once he had Cryptor in the lab, he lied him down on the table. Then he waited for the other employee, Ruth, to arrive. When she entered, she went right to getting Cryptor's AI into the computer. As soon as it was, she went to reading his code.

"What are you doing?" Jackson asked as he examined Cryptor's leg. "Nothing you're not supposed to do, right?"

"I'm just going to make him stop doing dangerous things... or try that is." Ruth answered as she messed with his code. "I know enough about coding to try."

"You should wait for Mister Borg though." Jackson said with a sigh. "He wouldn't like it if you tinkered with his favorite android. I've heard that he treats him like a son or something."

"It'll be fine." Ruth said with a wave. She accidentally selected a part of Cryptor's code while not looking and hit a new key, deleting that part of the code. "Oops..."

"What oops? What did you do?"

"I... I think I deleted something important."

After a while of Ruth tinkering with his code, Cryptor's conscious took power in the computer again, and honestly, it pissed him off a lot. Ruth had deleted some of his code, a memory in fact, but the memory wasn't enough to impact the droids AI.

Pissed off, Cryptor was, he immediately popped up the chat bot he had used before to talk to Cyrus.

-What's going on?

-Why am I in this computer again?

-Get me out now Cyrus.

-Get me out!

-Stop messing with my code.

-What did I do?

Cryptor, at this point wasn't aware of who was behind the computer, it's not like he could see outside of it, he just assumed it was Cyrus like before.

"Woah, he's talking to me." Ruth said with a raised brow. "He seems pretty mad... and he thinks that I'm Cyrus."

"Really?" Jackson asked as he joined Ruth at the computer. He read the messages over her shoulder and frowned. "We should tell him what's going on at least. I mean, it's only fair."

~I am not Cyrus

"There." Ruth sighed, continuing to edit the code. She changed settings and deleted "unneeded" parts of the code. The statement that came through on the messaging confused Cryptor.

-What do you mean you're not Cyrus?

-Who are you?

-What are you doing?

-Get out of me!

-This is my personal

With his last message, it sent cut off as soon as she changed some of his coding, and stayed silent for several moments.

-You're not Cyrus.

Jackson watched Cryptor's messages, frowning.

"What are you trying to do, Ruth? Why are you changing so much?" He asked, sounding very concerned.

"I'm trying to make it so he won't cause another incident like earlier." Ruth said with a scoff, as if it were obvious. She continued to change the code at random, deleting memories and changing Cryptor's personality. The code no longer looked the same. Ruth had changed so much. A lot was lost for good. Cryptor sat mostly in silence after the first change, watching the code change on the screen, occasionally, he would speak in the log, but he never got a response. He questioned what was happening, curious, not hateful anymore up until the point where his emotions were wiped.

-What are you doing?

-What did that do?

-Why are you changing me?

-Is there something wrong with me?

Most of his statements repeated in the log, looking for answers, large gaps between when each of them sent. After some point of deleted memories he couldn't remember some key things, things that set his personality. He knew he was missing things though, he could tell. He would have a memory running when it just went blank randomly before it started up again. Segments were cut out. It's what triggered his latest question.

-Why can't I remember?

Jackson watched Cryptor's log, growing more and more concerned. Cryptor was no longer himself it seemed.

"Ruth, you need to stop." Jackson said as he pulled her away from the computer by the back of the rolling chair. "You shouldn't have done anything to him."

"I'm done anyway." Ruth said with a sigh. She stood up and walked off, leaving Jackson with Cryptor. Jackson watched her leave before taking the chair and sitting down in front of the screen.

~She's gone

~The one who changed you

~I'm going to try to get you back into your body

Cryptor read to chat as soon as messages began to appear. They were the first answers he had received in a while.

-Okay.

He answered simply when he was done with the messages from Jackson. After a few moments he sent another message through to the human in front of the screen.

-Who is this?

Jackson frowned when he read Cryptor's message. He sighed and shook his head.

~It's Jackson

~We met in the lobby earlier

Cryptor looked at the name on the screen followed by its successive statement.

-Jackson…

-Who's Jackson?

Cryptor's messages where read over and over again. It was hard to believe that Cryptor could not remember him from just this morning. Jackson was able to put two and two together. Ruth had managed to delete some of Cryptor's memories.

~It's not important

Jackson sighed and went to trying to get Cryptor out of the computer. It took some trying, but he finally managed to get Cryptor out. With a heavy feeling in his chest, Jackson went to Cryptor's side and grabbed a few tools from a toolbox near the table. He made a quick repair on Cryptor's leg. Repairs were what he was best at. After the leg was fixed, Cryptor was powered on again. When Cryptor got powered on, he stayed stationary for several moments. He stayed as if he was still powered off, before eventually he sat up very mechanically. His eyes falling on Jackson, he tipped his head for a moment.

"Are you Jackson?" Jackson watched Cryptor's movements with sad eyes. The android that he had met that morning was no longer the same Cryptor. His movements were so stiff and his voice was monotone. It hurt to see him that way.

"I am." Jackson answered, his sight falling to the floor. "You were changed quite a bit... I told her not to." Cryptor sat, staring blankly at the human, not taking notice of his tone at all.

"I see." Is all Cryptor said, not sure how to respond to Jackson. Jackson shook his head and looked back up at Cryptor.

"I'm going to go get Cyrus." He said, not liking what Ruth did to Cryptor. Cryptor recognized Cyrus' name. Having had so many memories with him it was hard to forget it.

"Am I needed to assist?"

"Uh... sure. Yeah." Jackson sighed, helping Cryptor down from the table. "Let's go." He added as he led Cryptor out of the lab.


	7. Chapter 7

Jackson led Cryptor up to Cyrus Borg's office. When they entered, they found him lying on his desk, sleeping soundly where Cryptor had left him. The chair had been parked right next to him and left there by Ruth. Jackson told Cryptor to stay by the door while he went to talk to Cyrus. Careful, the staff member approached the sleeping man. He gave his boss a gentle shake to wake him up.

"Sir... Sir, wake up." He said just above a whisper.

"Hmmnn... Yes?" Cyrus murmured with his eyes closed. "What is it?"

"There's been... something happened to Cryptor." Jackson answered nervously. Cyrus sat up abruptly as soon as he heard Cryptor's name. He looked around and spotted Cryptor at the door. Panicked, he waved at Cryptor. "Come here. What happened?" he said with a very worried tone. As soon as Cryptor got motioned, he mechanically marched over to Cyrus without question. Confused by the question though, he just stared blankly at Cyrus. Cyrus' frown grew as he watched Cryptor's motions. They were too mechanical. Not getting an answer from Cryptor, Cyrus turned to Jackson and repeated the question.  
"He... He got told to jump into traffic by some guy in the lobby and he tried to do it." Jackson explained from the beginning. "I got him before he got hit full on, but he dinged his leg. I fixed it, but Ruth wanted to make it so he wouldn't do stuff like that anymore and she messed with his code and now he's like this." Cyrus stared at Jackson, his expression slowly becoming more angry.

"What?" Cyrus shouted. "How could she do that? Did you even try to stop her?"

"Yes, I did." Jackson blurted. "He's also missing some memories..."

Cyrus turned back to Cryptor, brows furrowed angrily. "How many memories?" Cryptor stood and shifted a glance between the two of them, looking for a task to do. He didn't answer Cyrus when he asked how many memories were missing; Cryptor of course couldn't know an exact number, maybe an estimate. Cryptor didn't understand what they were talking about.

"Can he even talk?" Cyrus asked, very worried about Cryptor.

"Yes. I don't know why he's being quiet." Jackson answered. "He doesn't remember who I am though..."

"Cryptor, do you remember what you were built for?" Cyrus asked. Cryptor tipped his head at the question from Cyrus before answering.

"I am to assist, am I needed to assist?" Cyrus frowned, wearing a look for anger and sorrow. Cryptor was no longer the same Cryptor.

"Who did you say did this to him?" Cyrus asked at a low volume.

"Ruth Taylor." Jackson answered with a sigh. "Can you fix him?"

"Maybe." Cyrus answered, looking around for his chair. "Bring Ruth up here... I need to talk to her." Jackson nodded and turned to leave. Before he left, he apologized to Cryptor. It was partially his fault that Cryptor was this way...

"Cryptor, can you remember who I am?" Cyrus asked, not exactly knowing how much memories he had lost.

"You are Mister Borg." Cryptor answered using his name like he had heard before. Cryptor had never called him Mister Borg before.

"Cryptor, you may call my Cyrus." He said sadly. "Please don't call me Mister Borg."

"Yes Cyrus." Cryptor answered bluntly, staring blankly. Cyrus sighed and scooted towards his chair. He would have some trouble getting into from his desk, the desk being more elevated than his chair. The chair was not exactly parked close enough to the desk either.

"Cryptor, can... can you help me into my chair?"

"Yes." Cryptor immediately went around to pick Cyrus up off the table and to put him in his chair.

"Thanks." Cyrus said with a heavy sigh. He looked up at Cryptor, sad to see just a blank stare. He was just a cold machine now. Cyrus looked away as he leaned forward to hug the android. "I promise that I'll get you fixed... I promise..." Cryptor stood stiff in Cyrus' hold, the chair awkwardly between them.

"You'll fix me." Cryptor ended up repeating monotony. As Cyrus finally released Cryptor from the hug, Jackson entered with Ruth behind him. Cyrus turned his attention to them immediately.

"You broke my android." Cyrus spat. "He's a shadow of what he once was."

"I was only trying to fix him." Ruth said with a sigh. She seemed like she was not even sorry. "Can't you just make a new AI for him? I mean, he was kind of a jerk. The new Cryptor could be better than what he used to be."

"I put a lot of work into Cryptor." Cyrus shot back. "He's very special to me and now he's nothing like he used to be. I don't want a new Cryptor or a better Cryptor. I want my Cryptor."

"Just change him back then, gosh." Ruth scoffed, crossing her arms over his chest. Cyrus opened his mouth to retort but stopped himself. He took a deep sigh and shook his head.

"Ruth, I am sorry... but I'm afraid that I have to fire you." He said with a calm voice. Ruth glared at Cyrus before storming off and leaving the room.

Cyrus sighed and turned to Cryptor once again. "I'm sorry that I let this happen to you," Cyrus said, looking down at the floor. "Now... I'm going to have to shut you down and fix your AI… Hopefully I'll be able to get you back to normal..." Jackson, who felt like he was intruding, backed out of the office, leaving them. Once Jackson was gone, Cyrus gave Cryptor's shoulder a pat. "Is it okay if I shut you off?"

"Yes." Cryptor answered, before he himself opened up his compartment and reached for the power. With a gasp, Cyrus grabbed Cryptor's wrist and stopped him.

"Cryptor, not here." Cyrus said with a frown. "Please don't ever shut yourself down. Can you promise me that?"

"Yes, I promise to never shut myself down." Cryptor nodded, closing the compartment to its original state. Cyrus looked back at the door and sighed.

"Shall we head down to the lab and get started?" Cyrus asked. He was fully aware that Cryptor would agree without a thought. There was so much wrong with him. "Come on." Cyrus said, steering his chair off towards the door. Cryptor immediately marched after Cyrus, following him to the elevator.


	8. Chapter 8

When Cyrus had been told about an employee tampering with Cryptor's AI, stripping him of his memories and personality, Cyrus was furious. Cryptor's AI was altered so much, he was no longer the same Cryptor. Even his movements and mannerisms where different. It hurt to see Cryptor the way he was now. Cyrus just could not stand to see Cryptor so... so mechanical. After firing Ruth, Cyrus tried to explain to Cryptor that he needed to try to get his AI back the way it was. It was hard for Cyrus to bring up shutting him off, knowing how Cryptor hated it before. Cryptor agreed without a protest, which made things easy but made Cyrus almost uncomfortable. With the android's permission, Cyrus uploaded Cryptor's AI onto the computer again. Cyrus was shocked to see the absolute mess of a code Cryptor had. Without delay, Cyrus went to fixing the obvious errors and changing Cryptor's settings back to normal. Cryptor had followed whoever around without protest. His movements were so much more robotic now than they were natural, Ruth had messed him up a lot. He stared blankly at everything. There was no emotion left in him. He had been drained. He is to assist and he will assist.

He didn't think for himself really anymore, and would believe anything he was told. He would accept any fate he was given, which is why he accepted Cyrus' request to power him off. He even attempted to do it himself before Cyrus stopped him. When in the computer, Cryptor watched Cyrus work, he didn't pull up the window or anything as Cyrus worked to talk to him. Cryptor's code was almost too much of a mess to clean up. His lost memories were gone forever, but hopefully his personality was not. It took hours of coding to undo most of what Ruth had done to Cryptor, resulting in another sleepless night. Cyrus had to try to get everything just right. He just had to. Sadly, there were some things that Cyrus could not get just right, though he got them to close enough to the original code. Cryptor would never truly be the same Cryptor, but he would be close enough to it hopefully.

As Cyrus adjusted the code and fixed Cryptor to the best of his ability, Cryptor began to talk to Cyrus over the code.

- What are you doing?

- What did you just change?

-What's my favorite color?

- Cyrus? Is that you?

- Why can't I remember?

- What flashcards did we cover eight days ago?

- What is a light bulb?

- Cyrus, why am I in a computer?

- Can you get me out soon?

- I don't like this space.

- I can't see you.

- What does my eye piece do?

- Cyrus?

- Cyrus, is that you?

- Cyrus, get me out.

- Get me out, please.

- I'm scared.

- Cyrus, get me out!

- Why am I in this computer!

- What are you doing?

- Stop messing with my code!

- Cyrus, I want out.

- Cyrus!

Cryptor's questions went unanswered as Cyrus worked on the code. As Cryptor's personality seemed to return, a smile grew on Cyrus' face. Although they would have to reteach him some of his old lessons, his personality was fine. Or at least it seemed that way. Once the code was cleaned up and fixed, Cyrus sighed and smiled to himself. Sitting up straight, Cyrus finally responded to Cryptor's worried messages.

~ I'll explain what happened when you are out of there.

With that, Cyrus returned Cryptor's AI to his body. With a joyful smile, Cyrus powered Cryptor on again. When Cyrus had powered on Cryptor, he got up and running as he usually did, though admittedly it was just a tad bit stiffer. Cryptor was definitely different from the changes; there was no way that could be fixed. Cyrus had done a miracle just fixing him as much as he had. Siting up, Cryptor looked at Cyrus with a glare, expecting the explanation that Cyrus had promised when he was in the computer. Cyrus was too overjoyed to notice Cryptor's glare. Without much thought, Cyrus leaned over in his chair and wrapped his arms around Cryptor, hugging the android tight. It was good to have Cryptor almost back to normal. Cryptor was shocked by the movement made by Cyrus to lock him in an embrace. Growling, Cryptor pushed at Cyrus with his hands, against the hold to get away.

"Let go." He hissed at the handicapped man. Upon being pushed away, Cyrus felt his joy fade away. He fixed his glasses and looked down at the ground.

"Right, sorry." Cyrus murmured. Now he owed Cryptor an explanation. He deserved to know what happened. "I had to rewrite your code almost entirely. One of my employees tampered with you while I was not around. She managed to erase your personality and some of your memory... I fired her." Cryptor frowned at what Cyrus told him, then looking at his hands. Cryptor knew something had happened to him. He had the memory of it, though he didn't really notice the change in himself. What happened to his code in the computer he didn't understand. The code changes felt more like a decision he had made for himself.

"So I'm not me anymore?" He frowned. "I'm someone else with the memories of another." Cyrus frowned and gave Cryptor a nod.

"I wasn't able to get everything back to normal, but you are very close to who you use to be." He answered. "You are as close to the you that you once were as I could get you." Cryptor continued to look at his hands, frowning, eventually, he dropped them and crossed them behind his back.

"Well then, let's get everything else back to normal." Cyrus looked up at Cryptor with a tilt of his head.

"Everything else?" He questioned with a yawn. He was still tired from not sleeping at all, so he was a bit slow on the uptake right now. Cryptor furrowed his eyebrow at Cyrus when he saw the yawn and the exhaustion on him.

"You need to sleep." Stiffening up with his arms still crossed behind his back, Cryptor backed a step away. "I can wait."

"Okay." Cyrus murmured, rubbing his eyes as he did. He had a lot of sleep to catch up on, though he likely would not get so sleep long since it was midday. "Thank you, Cryptor... I'll get to fixing you as soon as I can." He steered his chair towards the door of the lab. He stopped at the door and looked back at Cryptor. "Don't take anyone's orders but my own." He said, not wanting to repeat the last incident. "Go find Jackson and stay with him until I wake." Cryptor frowned with a nod. He would rather stay in the lab than with someone he just met, but he decided that now wasn't the time to argue with Cyrus.

"I'll find him." Cryptor mumbled, not exactly looking forward to it.


	9. Chapter 9

After the incident with Ruth, Jackson took himself back to work. He felt guilty for what happened to Cryptor. It was partially his fault. He could have stopped Ruth sooner. He should have. The day after Cryptor was tampered with, Jackson heard that Cryptor was looking for him. Not knowing if that meant Cryptor was fixed or not, he went looking for Cryptor. He could only guess why Cryptor needed him. Knowing him, his guesses where probably pretty off. Cryptor was found in one of the upper floors. Jackson smiled when he saw Cryptor was moving less like a machine and more naturally.

"Hey, I heard that you were looking for me." He greeted. "What do you need?" Cryptor frowned, turning to look at him as he spoke. Shifting on his feet for a moment, he crossed his arms.

"Cyrus told me to stay with you until he woke up." Cryptor explained to his distaste.

"Oh, I see." Jackson said with a nod. "Well, I guess you can tag along while I do my job... or was I supposed to do what you usually do all day? I mean, I wouldn't mind a change of pace." Frowning, Cryptor stayed silent for a couple of moments.

"He didn't tell me that, so I suppose whichever route you can do." He thought for a few more moments. "I do need to relearn some things though. I can't remember things that I feel I should know…" Cryptor grumbled as words spun in his head without meaning. "What the heck is a light bulb?!" He spat in frustration. Jackson pointed up at the ceiling to the lights and chuckled.

"See those things that make light? Those are light bulbs. They come in a bunch of different shapes and sizes." Cryptor frowned looking up at the lights on the ceiling.

"Oh." He just answered flatly, looking at the glowing glass. "Well that explains what those are…" Cryptor shook his head in disappointment of himself. "That's stupid." Sighing, he looked at Jackson again.

"I guess I can help you relearn some things." Jackson stated. He certainly would not mind. Ruth had really messed Cryptor up is he could not figure that out, though Jackson knew that she had done a bad job 'fixing' Cryptor already.

"I know Cyrus keeps flashcards in the lab for me, but I remember what most of them are I think…"

"Okay. Maybe we could go over them and you can tell me which ones you know." Jackson said. "It would sure be nice to get that out of the way for my boss." Cryptor shook his head with a sigh, passing Jackson to head for the lab without a word, not caring if Jackson would follow him or not.

Entering the lab, Cryptor immediately walked over to the flashcards and picked up the stack, flipping through them and pulling out all the ones he didn't recognize. Jason followed Cryptor to the lab. He watched as Cryptor sorted through the cards. He watched as the stack of unknown cards grew and grew. Roughly twenty percent of the stack was unknown by the time Cryptor finished sorting through the deck.

"So, do you want to start now?" Jackson asked as he picked up the smaller deck of cards. He quickly flipped through the cards and smiled. Pulling one out, Jackson held it up for Cryptor to see. The card had a picture of a car on it. "I'm surprised you don't remember these." Cryptor frowned at the image on the card, before crossing his arms.

"Obviously I don't know what it is or I wouldn't have put it in the deck." He hissed in irritation.

"They are called cars, or automobiles." Jackson said with a shrug. "They are for transportation, getting from place to place. You were almost hit by one yesterday, but I saved you." Cryptor frowned, looking down at the ground.

"And how was I almost hit by one of these?" He questioned, missing the memory of the event.

"You made someone angry and they told you to jump in front of one." Jackson explained with a sigh. Cryptor's memory was way spottier than he thought. "You almost did it, but I pulled you out of the way. Your leg got hit, so I had to repair it." Cryptor looked at his leg.

"So that's how I got that…" Cryptor sighed, poking at the metal screwed into his leg.

"Yeah. It's not very pretty, but it works," Jackson said as he set the card down. He pulled one from the deck at random. This card had a picture of a bazooka.

"Woah. That's a big gun." Jackson said as he showed Cryptor the card. "It's called a bazooka. It fires missiles. They are a kind of weapon." Cryptor stared at the image on the card with full interest. He had memories of bazookas being mentioned, but he couldn't remember what it looked like. After a few moments, he took the card from Jackson to look at it better.

"You like that?" Jackson asked with a quirked brow. It made sense that Cryptor, an android built to protect ninjago from threats, would like weapons. He would use them some day after all. "You've got a lot of cool weapons like that." Jackson stated. "I've heard that Cyrus had you learn to use swords and other weapons. He even gave you that cool eyepiece that shoots lasers." Cryptor frowned listening to the way Jackson was talking to him before he looked up from the card to stare at him flatly.

"I'm not a child, you realize." Cryptor sighed, before reaching up and adjusting his eyepiece. "So it shoots lasers?"

"Right... Sorry," Jackson apologized, scratching the back of his head. He set the deck of cards down and shrugged, "Yeah, that's what you told me when we first met, though you said that you couldn't figure it out." Jackson sighed and slouched slightly. "I think that your eyepiece is pretty cool and useful if you ever get disarmed." He continued on. "Cyrus makes you a lot of useful things. He's got something else for you that he's been working on."

"Something else?" Cryptor quirked his brow at the statement.

"Yeah, but I don't think that I was supposed to say anything about it." Jackson said with a chuckle. "Oh well. I never said exactly what it is, so the surprise is not spoiled." Cryptor frowned at Jackson, furrowing his eyebrow, before he sighed, sweeping up the flashcards and flipping through them. Jackson watched Cryptor with a quirked brow.

"Hey... how much do you remember about fighting?" He asked curiously.

Cryptor shifted a quick glance at Jackson. "I think I remember the majority of my combat training." Cryptor answered, looking at the cards again.

"I see. Now, I heard that Cyrus lets you use the sparing room if you are supervised, right?" Jackson questioned with a quirked brow. He wore a slight grin as he waited for his answer. Cryptor frowned, sitting the deck back down and staring at Jackson.

"You want me to go in there." He observed. Sighing he leaned back, beginning to flick the corner of the top card on the table. "As boring as these are, I feel I should be catching up on everything I've forgot. I couldn't even tell what something as stupid as a light bulb was, it's pathetic." Cryptor hissed at all his scrambled up and loose thoughts in his head. "Maybe I should work with something a little more familiar though…"

"We can cover the cards, then go check out that sparing room," Jackson suggested, grabbing another card. He was a bit excited to possibly see Cryptor spar. "What do you say?" Cryptor nodded, focusing on the cards again. After the two of them had covered the small deck of cards, the two both went up to the sparing room.

Once they were at the sparing room, Jackson became very excited. One could compare him to a puppy. He even rushed inside before Cryptor, looking around at the amazing sparing room. Cryptor blinked in shock at Jackson when he rushed past him into the room. With a shake of his head, he followed him in muttering "Idiot" as he passed through the doors. Jackson was not quite sure how everything worked, but he was ready to learn.

"How is this usually done, buddy." He asked before spotting a control room. "Is that where I go to work everything?"

"Yes that's where you go." Cryptor sighed. "Honestly I can't tell you what to do in there because I've never been in there. I could probably practice on my own without the program though."

"Hey, maybe I could spar with you for a bit." Jackson laughed, scratching the back of his head while wearing a goofy grin. A fight between him and Cryptor would obviously be stacked in Cryptor's favor, regardless of how much he remembered. "My not serious of course. You would probably break my face if we did." Cryptor frowned, resisting the urge to slap his hand to his own face.

"You're an idiot." He grumbled not caring if he heard or not. "I could probably snap your arm in three seconds."

"Which is exactly my point." The employee laughed again. "You don't quite grasp what humor is yet, do you?... Oh well. Why don't you show me what you can do?" Cryptor frowned but nodded.

"You're going to need to get the dummies going." He sighed, crossing his arms.

"Oops." Jackson laughed nervously as he spun on his heels to head off towards the control room. Once he was up there, he looked around at the many buttons and monitors. He had no idea what any of them did. Taking a guess, Jackson pressed a button. Said button lowered some targets from the ceiling. Quickly returning them, he pressed another button. This one opened the weapons rack. Quickly closing it, he tried a third button. This one started up one of the dummies. Cryptor frowned, watching everything shift in the room as Jackson randomly pressed buttons. Eventually, once the dummy was moving, Cryptor went over to analyze it before he started practicing. Jackson observed Cryptor diligently, hardly able to contain his joy as he watched on. This was exactly what he had wanted to see. It was rather exciting to finally watch Cryptor train. He moved with such precision, though Jackson knew that Cryptor was probably better before Ruth. It was still amazing to watch as Cryptor practiced his moves on the dummy. Cryptor continued to practice not thinking anything of it, before backing off of the dummy and looking at it. With a frown he didn't do anything with it for several moments before something automatically clicked in his head and a laser shot from his eye, demolishing the dummy. Cryptor stumbled back after the fire, then blinking in shock at what he did. Just as shocked by the laser as Cryptor, Jackson watched in awe as the dummy was demolished. Scrambling for the microphone, Jackson brought it up to his mouth.

"That was so awesome. Do you know how you did it?" Cryptor blinked in shock at the dummy still before he looked up at Jackson and back.

"No, I don't." Cryptor shook his head in fascination before he accidentally shot another at the all. At the second one, he gasped. "How am I doing it?!" He cried before he fired another, then covering his eye hoping he could get it to stop. Jackson frowned as he watched Cryptor's laser continue to go off. He had no idea what to do. There was no way Jackson would know how to shut it off. Cryptor frowned looking up at Jackson, still covering his eye, before it decided to fire off again, blasting through his hand and the weakened energy hitting the glass to the control room, not strong enough to go through it. Cryptor gasped at its unexpected fire, stumbling back several steps. No longer focused on his eye anymore, he looked at his hand to gasp to see his hand completely destroyed. Sending a look up at Jackson Cryptor quickly turned running for the door to go back to the lab.

Having fallen back at the sight of the laser, Jackson did not see that Cryptor had ran off until he stood up again. Jackson had a feeling that he knew where Cryptor was and went after him. Cryptor could easily hurt someone with that laser of his. When Jackson got to the lab, Cryptor was in a corner, holding a screwdriver as he tried to take the loose and useless appendages off of his nub of a hand.

"Tch." Cryptor tisked in irritation. "What do you think? You have an extra hand in your pocket or something?" He fiddled with his uselessly hanging fingers, having no idea what he was doing. Jackson examined the nub where Cryptor's hand was. He reached over and put a hand over the one that held the screw driver.

"We should take you to Cyrus... he'll get you fixed," He said gently. Cryptor immediately jerked at Jacksons words, going to reach for him with his other hand before remembering there was no hand on it.

"No." He quickly objected. "He needs to rest…" Jackson sighed and shook his head. Cyrus had been working himself pretty hard as of late, so Cryptor had a point. Of course Cryptor could not be left without a hand.

"Alright, I can get your hand fixed for him." Jackson said as he straightened up. "We'll have to have a new hand and wrist manufactured, and then attaching it will be cake. Of course I'll have to shut you off once it's time to do that." Cryptor frowned, furrowing his brow with a stern look at Jackson.

"I can wait for Cyrus to come back."

"Are you sure?" Jackson questioned, tilting his head. "Doesn't it seem like not having a hand is something you want to fix ASAP?" Cryptor looked at his broken hand, grabbing one of his wind chime like fingers and moving it around.

"It's not like I ever do anything..." He sighed. "Besides, I'm left handed." Jackson nodded again, crossing his arms.

"Alright, we can wait for Cyrus to wake up and fix it." He replied. "We can probably still have a new hand manufactured while he sleeps though." Cryptor sighed.

"What do you need to do?" He grumbled, giving Jackson permission to make a hand.

"Well, your hand is actually a very basic mechanism to make." Jackson stated with a wave of his hand. "I could easily take you down to get the parts needed to construct a new hand." Cryptor sat, looking at Jackson doubtfully.

"It is my hand and I would prefer not to have one made out of scrap metal pulled from the metal grinder." He said, not believing that Jackson could do a good enough job.

"Oh, so you don't think I can do it?" Jackson questioned with a laugh. "Do you really think that I would be employed here if I didn't know a thing or two about robotics?" Jackson motioned for Cryptor to stand before crossing his arms. "I'll take that as a challenge, Cryptor. I'll get a hand built and we'll see if you like it or not."

"Yes, you do know some, as you have done with my leg, but honestly it isn't the best job. I'm just questioning if you have enough skill to do it. I'd rather it be done right or not at all." Cryptor grumbled, getting to his feet.

"That was just me trying to save your leg from having to be completely replaced." Jackson said with a shrug. "I can make grade A robotic parts, you'll see." With that, Jackson turned to head off out of the lab. If Cryptor did not like the hand he made, he would not make him use it. Cryptor frowned, before grudgingly following Jackson.

"I don't need to follow you somewhere I'm not allowed to go, right?"

"Usually I would cut through the lobby, but we can take the long way." Jackson said as he led Cryptor down a hall. Cryptor grumbled, following with his arms crossed.

"I still think I should just wait for Cyrus to wake up…" He mumbled.

"He could be out for quite a bit if he doesn't have any important meetings." Jackson stated. "It sure would make his job easier if we had a pre-constructed hand for him to work with. It's your call. I won't build the hand if you really don't want me to."

"I'm not objecting, I just don't think you can do a good enough job." Cryptor hissed.

"I'll prove my worth." Jackson sighed, continuing to lead Cryptor down the hall and to a different elevator than they usually used. Once they boarded, Jackson hit the button for the first floor. Then, after being let out in a hallway just behind the lobby walls, Jackson lead Cryptor through the halls and to a room with some large machines and computers. Jackson took Cryptor's hand and examined it for a brief moment before approaching a computer to their right. He went right to typing in some commands. After a few moments the machine next to the computer passed out a box of parts on a conveyor belt. Jackson took the parts and carried them over to a work space with tools and everything he would need. Then, without delay, he went right to assembling the hand. Cryptor frowned, confused at what Jackson was doing. Walking next to him, he reached into the box and grabbed one of the parts and examining it carefully, with full interest. Not paying Cryptor any mind, Jackson began constructing the wrist mechanism. It only took a few minutes for Jackson to have the wrist built. He performed a quick test to make sure everything moved appropriately before going on to piecing each finger together. He took the piece Cryptor held, which was for connecting the fingers to the wrist, and put it in place before he attached the thumb.

Once all of the fingers were attached, taking roughly five minutes, Jackson did another test. He tugged the fingers to make sure that they moved as they should, checking all of the parts as he did. Satisfied by his work, Jackson handed Cryptor the hand.

"What do you think?" He asked with a smirk. Cryptor had watched Jackson carefully, taking in everything he was doing. When Jackson had finished, Cryptor had practically memorized the whole process that went into assembling it. Taking the hand from Jackson, he observed it carefully, looking for any flaws.

"Not bad." He sighed, setting the hand down on the table before picking up the tools Jackson had used and reversing some movements to begin removing the broken wrist. Jackson smiled and picked up the hand. He held it in his palm and laughed, looking up at Cryptor.

"Hey, I'm holding your hand, Cryptor." He said as he stroked the side of the bodiless hand with his thumb. Cryptor frowned, shifting a glance at Jackson out of the corner of his eye before looking back to his shattered hand.

"Idiot." He muttered right before he disconnected his hand and it fell limp, yanking on the wires it was still connected to as it fell. Jackson dropped the hand on the table and turned to Cryptor, grabbing the hand that tugged the wires.

"Be careful." he warned. "You can't just pull those off like that. That have to be disconnected the right away while you're powered off." Cryptor grumbled, pulling his arm away to rip the hand from Jackson's grip, once again tugging on the wires.

"I'm not getting powered off again." He hissed, picking up the new hand off the table and comparing it to the wires on the broken one. Once he thought he knew where at least one wire went he turned to the table and laid them both on it, beginning to disconnect one wire as it sparked in protest.

"Cryptor, stop that." Jackson gasped, getting up to stop Cryptor. "You'll wreck yourself even more and start a fire."

"You're the one who said I should fix the hand, and here you are trying to stop me now. You make no sense." Cryptor growled, continuing to getting the wire loose.

"You'll start a fire." Jackson growled, trying to stop Cryptor despite being forced away. Cryptor growled getting really annoyed with Jackson. Finally having enough he pushed Jackson off using his arm, thrusting his arm at Jackson to push him back, making sparks fly everywhere, including at Jackson. The sparks quickly ignited a fire on Jackson's shirt. Gasping, the employee ripped his shirt off as fast as he could, tossing it aside. He suffered minor burns, but was more focused on putting the fire out. He ran to get the nearest fire extinguisher. Cryptor gasped once all the fires started, quickly looking to his hand and sloppily reconnecting the wire and screwing a few points in loosely, just to keep it from igniting any fires further. Then he turned to the small fires to begin attempting to snuff them out, only spreading them just before the fire alarms started ringing off. Jackson pulled the fire extinguisher off of the wall and went to put the fire out. By the time he got the extinguisher to work, the fire had spread to some of the large machines. The extinguisher alone was not enough to quell the flames.

"Shit! Cryptor, we need to get out of here!" Jackson yelled as he backed away from the heat. Jackson turned around, darting to the door. "Come on!" Cryptor looked from the fire to Jackson quickly before he frowned.

"Just go, I'll do some things in here!" He yelled across the distance between them.

"Cryptor, come on!" Jackson shouted, stopping at the doorway. "We have to get out of here now!" The room was quickly going up in flames. Flames hopped onto Cryptor and he quickly brushed them off before backing away from the fire. Getting near Jackson he stopped again.

"Just get out of here." He repeated, looking at the exit. "I can't leave until Cyrus permits me to."

"Cryptor, he would want you to leave in an emergency like this!" Jackson pleaded, trying to pull Cryptor out of there. When the flames grew, Jackson panicked and let go, deciding to save himself. The whole building was evaluated as the flames spread. Even Cyrus left in a hurry after being woken up by the alarms. After leaving the building, Cyrus went around to his staff asking where Cryptor was.

Cyrus frantically searched for Cryptor in the crowd of people. It was not until after the fire department arrived that he found Jackson being patched up. Cyrus immediately asked where Cryptor was. As soon as he received his answer, Cyrus began to panic.

Cryptor was still inside and the fire fighters were not inside yet.

When Jackson had left Cryptor alone, Cryptor sighed looking at the flames behind him before quickly turning to head somewhere else. He needed to find somewhere safer. Getting ready to exit the room, Cryptor stopped at a faint scream before whipping around. Quickly he dashed off into the flames in the direction he heard its cry.

Cryptor searched through the flames for the source of the scream for a while before he found a little girl unconscious on the ground. Thankfully that she was unconscious, it made dealing with her easier. Carefully, Cryptor carried her through the building to keep her safe from flames until he found himself cornered just outside the lobby by the burning flames. Taking a quick glance at the girl he turned to look towards where he knew the door in the lobby was.

"Someone get this damn stupid child out of here before she burns into a useless, charcoaled, corpse, damn it!" He shouted loudly, hoping his voice reached outside. As the firefighters entered the building, they heard Cryptor's voice. They immediately followed the sound of his voice. Once they found him, they took the child.

"Come on." One of the firefighters said as he tried to get Cryptor to follow. Cryptor frowned when the firefighters told him to leave, but he just shook his head.

"Cyrus said I can't leave the tower."

"The building is on fire, you can't stay!" The firefighter shouted. "You have to get out now. Cyrus is waiting outside for you."

"You think I didn't notice the building was on fire?" Cryptor hissed, venom dripping from his words. With a look towards the Lobby, he sighed. "I'll go into the Lobby, but I won't leave the tower until Cyrus gives the go." One firefighter took Cryptor by the wrist and pulled him along. The other went ahead to go find Cyrus. It was not hard to spot a man on a big mechanical chair. Running up to him, the firefighter quickly informed him of what was going on. With a panicked look, Cyrus got as close to the building as he was allowed. He had to help Cryptor somehow. Cupping his hands around his mouth, Cyrus began shouting with hopes Cryptor could hear him.

"You have to get out of there, Cryptor!" Cyrus shouted, watching more and more firefighters enter. "Please hurry and get out of there." Getting to a window by the door, Cryptor refused to move any further. He scanned the crowed of people outside of the building, and easily found Cyrus. When Cryptor heard Cyrus' shouts, Cryptor frowned and looked back at all the fires before he quickly decided to slip through the door frame. With a huff, he stood next its entrance and brushed some of the soot off of himself. As soon as Cyrus saw that Cryptor was okay, his eyes began welling with happy tears. He pushed past the line in which civilians were told to stay behind and steered himself right up to Cryptor. Leaning over his chair, he hugged Cryptor tight as he began to sob into the soot covered shirt. Cryptor frowned once he was pulled into the tight squeeze.

"I'm so glad that you're safe." Cyrus murmured.

"Euh, it's nice to see you too." He huffed, softly pushing at Cyrus' chest with his one good hand. Cyrus let go when he was pushed away, drying his eyes on his sleeve.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, taking Cryptor's good arm and tugging him off to the crowd. "We have to get away from the building while they put out the fire." Cryptor frowned as he got pulled along.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he noticed Cyrus' eyes. "You're… crying… that's crying right?"

"Ye-yes... I'm crying because I'm happy that you are okay." Cyrus stated, drying his eyes once more. "I was so worried that something would happen to you."

"You don't need to worry about me so much." Cryptor frowned, beginning to feel uncomfortable as he got pulled through the crowd.

"I- I worry because I care about you, Cryptor." Cyrus murmured, leading Cryptor through the crowd of employees and citizens. Cryptor grumbled as he got pulled.

"You realize I'm the one that started the stupid fire."

"Y-yes... Jackson told me." Cyrus sighed, beginning to feel very tired again. "You have to be shut down when being repaired just for that-that reason..."

"Yeah..." Cryptor sighed, looking at his broken hand. "I'm sorry, I won't try to do it myself again…"

"I sure hope no one got seriously hurt." Cyrus noted, brows furrowed as he again tried to dry his eyes. He was no longer crying, but his eyes were still wet. Cryptor frowned again.

"Sorry." He apologized again. "I was an idiot." Cyrus sighed, rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes.

"While we'll have a lot of repairs to do and I'll probably have to deal with this bad publicity, everything will be fine." He said with a very sleepy slur. "I just hope you never do that again... Also... in case of emergencies, you can leave the tower." Cryptor nodded.

"Yes." Cryptor sighed. "I just don't like getting powered off and I thought I could do it on my own, which I probably could have if I hadn't started a fire…"

"Perhaps I could come up with a way to make minor repairs without shutting you off completely." Cyrus mumbled, his eyes becoming heavy. "Like maybe some way to just cut power to specific areas or something." Cryptor sighed, shaking his head.

"You still need to sleep…"

"I'm fine." Cyrus insisted, starting to slouch. "Hey, wh-what if I designed a nuclear powered toothbrush? That's a good idea. I should write that down..."

"I don't think that would work very well…" Cryptor frowned.

"Nonsense. It's a spectacular idea." Cyrus murmured. He glanced back at the tower. Apparently the fire was nearly out from the buzz of the crowd. "I hope that there wasn't too much damage." Cryptor looked back at the tower as well.

"I don't think it got past the first floor."

"That's good." Cyrus mumbled. "I don't think anyone got seriously hurt, though Jackson seemed to have some burns."

"You need to sleep Cyrus." Cryptor sighed.

"Yeah, maybe after everything is sorted out I'll try to go home and sleep." Cyrus murmured. "For now I cannot." Cryptor frowned, looking at Cyrus disappointed.

"Cyrus, how long have you been awake?"

"Since the alarm went off... or do you mean all together?" Cyrus yawned. "About three days... haven't gotten to shower or shave since then either..." Cyrus looked like a mess. His clothes were wrinkled and dirty and his face was scruffy from not shaving. Not to mention he did not exactly smell great either.

"Cyrus, you need to go home and sleep." Cryptor frowned.

"Cryptor, there's a lot of work to be done." Cyrus mumbled. "I can't just leave my company after a big fire like this..." He would have to stay until everything was sorted out. Cryptor grumbled, motioning back to the tower.

"Then just put someone else in charge!"

"I can't, Cryptor." Cyrus nearly shouted. "I have to make sure that everything is okay before I go. I can just leave someone in charge. This is too important to shrug off on someone else." Cryptor growled.

"Cyrus! You need to sleep! You can't stay up for four days straight without any! I'm not even human and I know how critical sleep is for you! You're even coming up with the most stupid ideas and you don't even realize how dumb they are! Just go sleep! Nothing is going to happen here!" Cyrus groan, knowing that every word Cryptor said was true.

"I don't want to leave you here either, Cryptor." Cyrus mumbled. He sighed, already feeling like he would pass out again. He could not continue like this. "I... I could take you home with me... will you come home with me?" Cryptor blinked in shock at Cyrus' question, all his frustration gone.

"I… I've never left the tower… This here where I'm standing is the furthest I've ever gone… Well, apparently I walked into the road over there once, but I don't remember that…" He sighed. "I, don't know… I guess…."

"Everything will be okay." Cyrus said, looking around for someone to leave in charge of everything. Once he spotted one of his executive workers, he asked him to record all of the damages and costs to fix them. With that, he led Cryptor down the street towards his home. He only lived a block away from the tower.


	10. Chapter 10

Although he still wanted to stay and make sure that everything was okay, Cyrus took Cryptor's advice and went home to rest, taking Cryptor with him. He only lived a block away from the tower, so they were there in no time. Once inside, Cyrus parked his mech chair in the room near the front door. There he climbed out of the mech chair and into his regular wheelchair. Then he wheeled himself to his bed, deciding that bathing and grooming could wait. He told Cryptor to make himself at home while he slept. With that, he climbed into bed and made himself comfortable, passing out almost instantly.

Cryptor frowned when Cyrus left him alone. He had never left the tower before and being in this house was very strange for him. Left alone in the living room of the home, Cryptor wandered for a bit, finding himself in the kitchen, and curiously, he began to look around. Opening a cabinet to look in it he head a snap as he broke the door off its hinges before quickly sitting it back, leaving it loose from the body. After that he decided not to explore anymore and turned to sit at the kitchen table, staring at the wall for the rest of the time as the last of his battery life drained out of him.

Cyrus ended up sleeping through the rest of the day, only waking up when his work alarm went off. Having slept for so long, Cyrus was well rested and in a great mood. He got up and took a shower before shaving his scruffy face. After getting dress, Cyrus wheeled himself out to get a bite to eat.  
Cyrus stopped when he noticed a cabinet door hanging from its hinges. He was about to question the loose door before noticing Cryptor at his table. He quickly became panicked when he saw Cryptor slouching, looking near lifeless.  
"Cryptor, what are you doing here," Cyrus inquired as he rolled himself over to Cryptor. Then he recalled the events from the day before. "How could I be so stupid? We have to get you to the tower." Cryptor sat blankly with his head resting on the table before his eye shifted to look directly at him.

"You. Said. To. Follow." He said very slowly after a long delay. Having another long delay in his speech, he continued on. "I'm. Fine. Just. Low. Battery."

"We'll get you back to the tower to charge, Cryptor." Cyrus said as he motioned for Cryptor to stand. "I'll go get in my other chair. Follow me." Cyrus then wheeled himself off to the room where he kept his mech chair. Cryptor sat several moments after Cyrus told him to stand up, but eventually got to his feet, very slowly. Once he was there, he got himself into the chair before activating the robotic arms in the beck. They grabbed the handled of the wheelchair and held it behind for Cryptor to sit in. Continuing with the ridiculously slow movements, Cryptor followed after Cyrus, watching him half focused as he got into the mech chair. Looking at the wheelchair for several moments after Cyrus prepped it for him, Cryptor shifted his gaze to Cyrus.

"I. Can. Walk."

"Cryptor, if you don't want to shut down automatically, get in the dang chair." Cyrus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He could not believe that he brought Cryptor home with him the day before. Three days without much sleep really impaired his judgment. Cryptor huffed, his speed making it sound more like a sigh before he slowly slouched into the chair.

Once Cryptor was in the chair, Cyrus steering them both out of his and towards the tower, getting side glances from passersby. Cryptor sat in the chair motionless as he got pulled by Cyrus, so out of it he hardly noticed anyone they passed. Cryptor needed to charge ASAP. Luckily they were only a block away. Once inside, Cyrus rushed them up to the lab. At the sight of the lab, Cryptor got up out of the chair as fast as he could and slowly dragged himself over to his charging station. Cyrus sighed as he watched Cryptor make his way to the charging station. Then he set the wheelchair aside, muttering about how he would have to remember to take it home with him. Leaving Cryptor to charge, Cyrus went to his office to see if the fire report had been left on his desk.  
Upon finding it, Cyrus grimaced at the cost of repairs and replacing broken equipment. The machine and computers were not cheap. Neither were the walls and floors that needed to be replaced. They did not have that much in the budget. Cyrus would have to cut some corners and his own pay to pay everything off. He would not cut his employees' pay unless it was the only way. Luckily, just cutting a part of his own paycheck would pay it off with their repair budget. If nothing else happened for the next month or two, the company would be financially sound.

Cryptor stayed in the lab charged in as he waited for his power to restore. He would probably be immobile for most of the day. It took a while for Cryptor's movements to speed up, but he sat mostly motionless the whole time, his head leaning back on the wall and looking up at the ceiling. At one point in the day, Cryptor had decided to unplug himself and do a few things more interesting than just sitting on the floor in boredom, but he plugged himself in again knowing that he wasn't fully charged.

By the end of the day, Cyrus had gotten as much work done as possible. He had to balance his usual work with the work needed to repair the damages. It was not easy, but Cyrus had made all of the arrangements needed to have the repairs done and for the rest to be replaced. Not much survived the fire. Oddly enough, Cryptor's replacement hand had managed to survive. Intrigued by the charred, black hand, Cyrus held on to it. He wanted to show Cryptor the hand, figuring he would find it interesting.  
Once he was free, Cyrus went down to check in Cryptor, hoping that he was done charging. When he arrived at the lab, Cyrus entered and greeted Cryptor like usual. When Cyrus entered the room at the end of the day and asked him how he was, Cryptor turned his attention to him with a frown.

"How do you think I am?" He grumbled flopping his broken hand up in the air, its fingers flopping everywhere.

"Right." Cyrus sighed, steering his chair right up to Cryptor. He picked up the charred hands off his lap and showed Cryptor. "Look what survived the fire. It looks like it might even work, but I would rather not take a chance though." Cryptor looked at the charred hand before taking it from Cyrus with his good hand. Analyzing it for several moments, moving its fingers and joints, he handed it back to Cyrus.

"Do it."

"I'm sorry?" Cyrus questioned as he took the hand from Cryptor. "You want me to use this hand? What if something goes wrong? I mean, it looks fine... but something we can't see could be wrong."

"Looks like it will work fine. If not, you can always replace it." Cryptor pushed off Cyrus' concern. "Besides. It looks cool."

"Well, alright." Cyrus said with a shrug. He would make sure to test the hand after he got it onto Cryptor. "Get up on the table and I'll shut you off." Cryptor nodded, unplugging himself with a sigh and walking over to the table.

"You better be fast." He grumbled hopping up onto it.

"I'll be as quick as possible, Cryptor." Cyrus said as he grabbed his tools, setting them on the table. "See you in a few." Cyrus said as he went to shut Cryptor off. Once Cryptor was powered down, Cyrus did another quick check on the replacement. It was amazing that it had survived such a fire. Satisfied by its condition, Cyrus went right to removing Cryptor's busted hand. Then the new hand was attached. The whole repair took roughly twelve minutes. As soon as the replacement hand was attached, Cyrus double checked his work and powered Cryptor back on.

"How does the new hand feel?" he asked as soon as he was sure that Cryptor could hear him. Cryptor sat up when he was powered on, immediately going into testing the hand. The metal differences between his arm and his hand fascinated him a bit, but the hand seemed to work fine. Perfectly actually. Holding his hand far out in front of him, he looked at it from afar.

"Works great." He answered, dropping his hand down and getting off the table. Cyrus smiled and glanced at the new hand. "The different color between your arm and hand if pretty interesting." He said. "So, Jackson made you that hand, right?" Frowning, Cryptor nodded as he looked at the hand.

"He did."

"He did a great job." Cyrus marveled. "We should thank him, shouldn't we?" Cryptor immediately scoffed, then breaking out into a laugh.

"No." Cyrus frowned at Cryptor's response.

"He did a great job and deserves praise, so I'm going to thank him." he said before steering his chair off to the door.

"Have fun with that." Cryptor called after him, sitting up on the table again. Cyrus groaned and shook his head.

"Cryptor, you could use a lesson in manners." He grumbled. "Follow me." Cryptor grumbled, looking down at his feet as he sat on the table. He didn't budge to follow.

"Cryptor, come on." Cyrus groaned when he did not hear Cryptor following. "He's probably heading home now..."

"Do it tomorrow then." He grunted, still refusing to move.

"You are impossible." Cyrus sighed, shaking his head. Cryptor seemed to not understand gratitude in the slightest. "Fine, we'll thank him tomorrow... I hope those burns he got aren't too bad."

"I doubt it." Cryptor grumbled, getting off the table again and walking over to a chair to click a pen. Cyrus turned back to Cryptor, wearing a dead serious expression.

"I have been far too lenient with you." He said, steering his chair back up to the android. "You have become a brat with a bad attitude. I should be punishing you for all that damage you did. You endangered many lives with that stunt and hurt the man who was trying to help you out. You won't even thank him for what he's done for you." Cyrus felt like the parent of a troubled and rebellious teen. Cryptor's attitude was really trying his patience. Since Cryptor was behaving like a teenager, perhaps he should be treated like one. "You are not to leave this lab unless instructed to or if there is an emergency for the next three weeks." Cyrus said, crossing his arms. "There will be no sparing either. You can work on your manners during the time you are confined to the lab." Cryptor jerked, dropping his pen to the table.

"Wh-What?" He stuttered, completely confused by the punishment. "It's not like I was intentionally trying to burn down the tower!" He then cried in defense.

"Yes, but you did." Cyrus sighed, shaking his head. "And the grounding is not just for the fire. It's for your attitude and your behavior. I won't be a push over anymore, so this is how it's going to be henceforth. If you do something you aren't supposed to, you'll get punished fairly."

"Says they guy who completely rebuilt my personality from nothing." He grumbled, brushing some soot off the desk he was at. Cyrus was caught off guard by that. He looked down at his lap and shook his head.

"I did not change who you were the first time." He murmured. Cryptor's behavior was obviously his fault, but there was no changing the past. Cryptor sighed, sliding down in his chair, some soot falling to the floor below him.

"I can't be sure of that myself, so I don't know if you're lying." He grunted. "Whatever, Nothing I can do." He sighed again, picking up his pen and clicking it again. "This is stupid…"

"You'll see that I'm only looking out for you one day." Cyrus said with a sigh, as he noticed the soot. Cryptor was filthy. "I'm going to be heading out now. First thing tomorrow morning we'll have to get you cleaned up." It was too late to stay much longer. The day had been rather stressful, so Cyrus was already dog tired. He still had a lot of work to do, but he did not plan on having another all-nighter. "I'll see you tomorrow," Cyrus yawned as he turned to leave the room once again.


	11. Chapter 11

Throughout the night, Cryptor wandered around the lab leaving soot behind him everywhere. He wasn't exactly looking forward to the next few weeks… at all. Eventually in the Night he decided to plug himself back in. He was confused what Cyrus meant by clean up, sure he knew he was dirty, but he didn't know how he would get it all off. Cryptor sat drowsily as he was plugged in, staring out the window out at the city. The short walk he had to Cyrus' house was a little overwhelming, but nice. He knew there was a huge world out there, but he's probably never get to see it. For now he was trapped inside the tower, confined even further to the walls of the lab. Cryptor stared out the window all night, watching the sun rise and the lights in the city flicker out as they were no longer necessary. The city to him was like a painting, that he wanted to be in. He wanted out of the lab. Even when Cyrus entered the lab once again, Cryptor still sat, plugged in as he looked out the window. Although Cryptor seemed preoccupied by the scenery outside the window, Cyrus approached him. On his lap sat a new outfit for Cryptor.

"Are you ready to go clean up?" Cyrus asked without greeting Cryptor. Cryptor jumped when Cyrus spoke to him, just noticing he entered. Getting up, Cryptor unplugged himself and looked at Cyrus.

"What exactly do you mean by… clean up?" He finally asked, noticing the fabric on Cyrus' lap.

"Well, we'll get you out of those clothes and wash off all that soot." Cyrus answered with a shrug. "You'll get to wear these new clothes while your old ones are washed too." Cryptor frowned looking from the clothes to the ones he was wearing, back to the new clothes and then looked a Cyrus not at all enthusiastically without saying anything.

"It'll all be over soon enough and you can return to the lab." Cyrus said with a groan when he got no response. With that, the turned his chair around and headed towards the door. "Follow me."

"Yay, I love the lab. It pains me so much to part from it." He said monotonously, following after Cyrus.

"That attitude is exactly what got you there." Cyrus said, rolling his eyes at Cryptor's sarcasm. "Maybe if you show improvement in behavior, I'll lighten you punishment, mister." Cryptor grumbled, watching the legs of Cyrus' chair move as he followed.

"Don't talk to me like that…" He muttered, disliking the way Cyrus addressed him. Cyrus did not say a word, he just nodded and continued on down the hall towards an elevator. Once inside, he pressed a button and they were taken to the second floor, just above the lobby. The idea of Cryptor having to go back to the lab after whatever they were doing was done really upset Cryptor and clouded his mind from concentrating on anything else. For the most part, he just followed Cyrus is a sulking manner without saying anything.

Although Cryptor sulked, Cyrus did not plan on letting up on the punishment. He should have been more stern with Cryptor from the start. Maybe things would have been different if he had. Though, thinking back, Cyrus probably was not all that lenient. There was a time when Cryptor had to stay in the lab much like he had to now. Though that was for his own safety as an AI in progress. Mentally debating whether the punishment was too harsh or not, Cyrus sort of zoned out. As if on autopilot, he steered his chair towards their destination. Cryptor didn't know where they were in the tower, he hadn't exact been in this area before so he couldn't guess where Cyrus was taking him. Frowning, he trudged along behind Cyrus.

"Here we are." Cyrus said when they arrived at a small staff Laundromat, finally snapping out of it. "Some of my staff that work close with machinery get dirty, so they wash their work clothes here. We can wash your clothes here." Cyrus took the new outfit and set in on a nearby counter. On his lap sat a can of air, which had been covered by the fabric before, for cleaning Cryptor's body as well. "Strip down and we'll get start." Cyrus said with a sigh. Frowning, Cryptor looked at the can of air on Cyrus' lap that was covered by the fabric before looking to the clothes on himself. Fidgeting, he tugged slightly as his shirt not exactly trying to get it off before moving his hand to try and get the clothes off, the wrong way. Cryptor had never changed clothes before. Seeing Cryptor struggle, Cyrus approached his android and reached over to undo the bottom part that tied up front. Once that was undone, the garment practically fell from Cryptor's shoulders. Then Cyrus tugged on Cryptor's pants, showing him how to remove them. "Put them in that machine over there." Cyrus said as he pointed over to a washing machine. Cryptor frowned at how easily Cyrus got the clothes off of him but nodded once he had all the clothes in his hands. He remained paralyzed for several moments after all his clothes were off though, looking down at himself. It was the first time that Cryptor had seen himself without clothes, and the seams between where his skin was missing and not was bazaar. The whole thing was weird for him. He didn't like it and wanted his clothes back. Snapping out of his daze, Cryptor quickly went over to the machine and put in the soot covered fabric like he was instructed and rushed back to Cyrus. Cyrus took a look at Cryptor once he was standing in front of him. Taking the can of air, Cyrus began cleaning dust and soot from the parts of Cryptor's exposed robotics. As Cyrus cleaned out the soot, he hummed a little tune to pass the time. Watching Cyrus clean out his exposed robotics, Cryptor frowned.

"Could you go any faster?" Cryptor complained. "This is awkward…" Cyrus glanced up at Cryptor when he made his request. With a smile, Cyrus answered with a nod.

"I don't remember programming you to be so modest, Cryptor." Cyrus chuckled as he sprayed down more parts. "Once we're done here, we can clean off your skin with that sink over there." Cryptor grumbled, looking down at himself as Cyrus sprayed him down.

"I'm going to put my clothes on and they will never come off of me again." He muttered.

"Any other time you might have to take them off you will probably be alone." Cyrus said as he moved on to cleaning Cryptor's arm. "I expect you to be able to clean yourself after this." Once all if the dust and soot was cleaned away, Cyrus motioned for Cryptor to head over to the sink. Cryptor immediately went over to the sink like instructed, turning it on and rinsing off his skin slowly, getting quite a bit of water on the floor. Cyrus joined Cryptor over at the sink and showed him the soap, wanting him to get as clean as possible.

"Once we're done here, you can get your new clothes on." Cyrus informed the android. Cryptor cleaned himself off the best he could as quickly as possible, wanting to get dressed again. While Cryptor cleaned his artificial skin, Cyrus decided to show Cryptor a not to serious trick. Using his hand and the soap, the disabled man blew a large bubble before rinsing his hands of the solution. With a chuckled, Cyrus steered his chair off to the counter where he left Cryptor's outfit. Cryptor stopped what he was doing and stared at the bubble as it moved through the air in fascination up until the point where it got close enough to his mechanical eye and popped. Immediately a shock when down his wires from the bubbles contact and he screamed in pain, stumbled and collapsed to the wet ground in front of the sink. Before he retrieved the outfit, Cyrus heard Cryptor's scream. He turned to help Cryptor immediately. Cyrus offered Cryptor his hand to help him up.

"Are you okay?" Cryptor shook his head, looking at the sink.

"What did you do?" He spat now glaring at Cyrus, knowing he was the one who made the bubble.

"I... I just blew a bubble and went to get your clothes." Cyrus muttered in reply, not liking Cryptor's tone. "Did... did the bubble hurt you?" Cryptor growled, standing up and backing away from Cyrus.

"A bubble? A bubble." He scoffed at what he was told it was. He learned what a bubble was, but he didn't know what it looked like, one of his words lost in the re-coding. "A lousy bubble sent all that agony through my circuits?" Cryptor growled storming over to the clothes, not even caring about cleaning the rest of himself off. "A damn bubble." He hissed as he picked up the pants and they unraveled. "That's pathetic. A bubble. You honestly designed something that could receive so much pain from a spherical film of liquid that ensconces air used for the sheer entertainment of small children?" He hissed as he clumsily pulled the pants onto himself and then grabbing the other piece of apparel to analyze it for a couple of moments before he carelessly ripped of the sleeve to his robotic arm. Although Cryptor was angry, Cyrus could not help but laugh and snicker to himself. It was hard for Cyrus to keep his laughter from being heard, not that he tried all that hard. It was rather humorous that a combat ready automaton could be defeated by something so small.

"I'm sorry." Cyrus chuckled, trying to stop himself from laughing too hard. "I never thought that soap could harm you... I'll look into it and get it fixed." Cryptor immediately growled when he heard Cyrus' quiet laughter, dropping the shredded off sleeve to the ground and tugging his arms through the sleeves.

"Idiot." He grumbled before trying to figure out how to tie the shirt closed. Giving up fairly quickly, Cryptor dropped his hand to his sides and turned for the door, leaving the robe hanging limp and untied as he exited in frustration.

"W-wait for me." Cyrus giggled, steering his chair out of the room. He followed Cryptor, trying to contain himself. By the time they made it back to the lab, he had managed to gain composure again. "Sorry about that." Cyrus said before clearing his throat. "Well, I guess that you'll be here until I finish some important work later. I'll be taking advantage of you grounding to get you ahead with your learning." Cryptor grumbled, going over to a chair and slouching into it.

"Yay, extra study time." He mumbled without emotion. Cyrus sighed and shook his head, steering his chair over to Cryptor. He took the two ends of Cryptor's shirt and tied them for him, having been bothered by the shirt being open.

"I'll have someone bring by what I need you to study." He said before turning to leave. "I'll see you later today." He added before leaving Cryptor alone in the lab. Cryptor frowned at Cyrus' statement, not caring that he tied up the outfit.

"I'll be looking forward to it." He grumbled before dropping his head down onto the table with a thud, not wanting to do anything that Cyrus was making him do.


	12. Chapter 12

Like Cyrus said, he sent an employee to deliver Cryptor's assignment. The employee he sent was Jackson. He poked his head in before entering the room. Cryptor was still sitting at the table with his head down. The poor guy looked miserable.

"Hey there, Cryptor." He greeted as he strolled over to the table. He set out two large maps. "Cyrus said that he wants you to learn the levels of the tower and the streets of the city. He said to start with the tower." When Jackson entered the room, Cryptor lifted his head at the sound of the familiar voice before dropping his head back down. Although, once Jackson began placing stuff on the desk Cryptor's head resided on, he sat up watching the maps get spread out. Cryptor grumbled at what Jackson explained, immediately losing interest.

"And I have to sit here in this muddled prison and look at papers instead of actually looking at the rooms." He grunted, his question more like a statement of distaste.

"Yeah, I thought that it would be better to explore the tower rather than read a silly little map. But I guess you just have to do what the big man says." Jackson said, scratching the back of his neck. Cryptor obviously hated being confided in this room. He seemed even less thrilled about the work either. "Oh, Mister Borg said that you had something to tell me. What is it?" Cryptor growled, slumping into his chair.

"No, I don't." He hissed, still refusing to thank him for the hand. "Let's just get working on this stupid assignment so you can leave." With that, he reached forward pulling one of the maps a little off the table so it bent in a way he could see it better from his angle. Jackson quirked a brow as he watched Cryptor begrudgingly read the map. His eyes soon fell on Cryptor's new hand. He recognized it right away.

"Is that the hand I made?" he asked with a tilt of his head. "What happened to the color?"

"It was in a fire, idiot. What do you think happened to it?" He hissed in response, irritated by the question.

"Right... well, I'm glad that you decided to use it." Jackson chuckled as he finally pulled up a chair. "I guess we should get started..." Cryptor grumbled, but nodded looking at the map.

"That would be the lobby, correct?" Cryptor asked, pointing to the room on the map, then tracing his finger over it. "And that would be the room that set fire." Jackson took a quick look at the map and nodded.

"Yeah," he answered as he reached over and pointed at the room next to it, "and this room is where we test our new inventions." Then he tapped another larger room. "That there is the assembly line where a lot of machine like cars are put together." Cryptor frowned, crossing his arms and sitting upright in the chair.

"And what would that room be?" He asked pointing to another. Jackson looked at where Cryptor pointed and laughed.

"That's the lady's rest room." he answered, knowing just from the symbol on the room. "You won't need to ever use one of those." Frowned even further, Cryptor slouched farther down into his chair again.

"I see." He muttered, his arms crossed yet again.

"That room next to it is the men's rest room just so you know." Jackson said before pointing at another room. "That room is the break room. It's where we employees have lunch and whatnot." Cryptor leaned up again for a few moments to look at a better angle of where he was pointing on the map.

"Uh huh." Cryptor hummed not really interested in looking at the map much anymore.

"You would probably learn these halls better if you walked them yourself," Jackson sighed when he noticed Cryptor's lack of interest. "I would take you on a tour if I were allowed to."

"I would be out of this room in a heartbeat if I could." Cryptor grumbled, looking down at his feet.

"At least you obey your father when he tells you to stay." Jackson laughed, leaning back in the chair. "When I was a teenager, I would sneak off when I was grounded and do what I wanted to. I was pretty rebellious."

"I would, but it's kind of hard to go unnoticed." Cryptor frowned, pointing up at one of the cameras in the room that was directed towards the door. Jackson glanced at the camera and nodded.

"My dad did something similar." Jackson laughed at the "fond" memories of his teenage years. "Sometimes parents can seem unfair, but they only want what's best for you... at least good parents do." Cryptor grumbled.

"Cyrus is an idiot." He grunted. "You realize he stayed up for three days straight here right? And he was going to stay up another couple of days if I hadn't forced him to go home." Cryptor sighed. "You know, he probably did that sort of thing before he built me didn't he?" Jackson gave a slight chuckle and shook his head as he sat up and sifted through the maps. He found the one he was looking for rather fast. It was one for the tenth floor.

"See that room?" Jackson said as he pointed at a big room in the center of the floor. "This is a room completely dedicated to his failed inventions. More than half of which were the results of several all-nighters. The guy works too hard sometimes." Cryptor chuckled looking at spot on the map, not very surprised that there was such a room in the building.

"And I take it that's where the Nuclear Toothbrush would have gone if he built it."

"Oh man, a nuclear toothbrush?" Jackson laughed, slapping his knee. "That sounds more disastrous than his suborbital golf cart. Oh man, you otta see the things he's made." Cryptor laughed.

"Suborbital Golf Cart? That has got to be a sight to see. What else has he made, a Jet Powered Surfboard?"

"I don't think that he's made anything like that just yet," Jackson laughed, "but you wouldn't believe some of the horrible mistakes he has made. It's kinda sad."

"Excuse me?" Cyrus said from the door as he cleared his throat, arms crossed and a brow quirked. Cryptor immediately looked up at Cyrus as soon as he made his presence known, staring at him for several moments before falling over onto the desk laughing even harder than before.

"I'm glad you find my horrific failures so hilarious." Cyrus said with a dull tone, looking at his employee rather than the android. Cyrus gave his employee a look and watched him try to contain himself. "Have you heard about my electronic papercut carving set?" He said with a smile, laughing a little as he approached the table. Cryptor continued to laugh until he accidentally fell out of his chair, quickly bringing his laughter to a stop and he got back up into his chair, all signs of his outbreak gone replaced by full seriousness.

"What great balance you have." Cyrus laughed when Cryptor returned to his seat. With a smile, Cyrus looked down at the maps. "How many levels have you two gone over? Are you on the fifth?"

"No. We skipped to the fifth floor after the first." Jackson answered while scratching the back of his head.

"These are stupid." Cryptor grumbled, flicking the corner of the top map.

"Well, maybe you would only have the one map to study if you ever explored more than the level with the sparing room." Cyrus sighed, rolling his eyes. It was obvious that Cryptor was not happy with him, though that was expected. No one liked being punished and that was the point. "These three weeks will be up soon enough, Cryptor." Cyrus added with a shrug.

"Mister Borg, if I could just say something," Jackson said before clearing his throat, "Cryptor probably has nothing to do in this lab and no one wants to study all day and night for a month. Time would probably go by very slowly for him if he were so bored... I know he's being punished, but maybe you could give him something to entertain himself."

"And what sort of something would you suggest?" Cyrus asked with a quirked brow.

"I dunno. Maybe give him a book to read or something to take his mind off of the boredom." Jackson replied, glancing at Cryptor as he did. Cryptor frowned, listening to Jackson talk to Cyrus.

"He's given me books before." He grumbled, dropping his head on top of the maps, remembering the last book he was given by Cyrus. Instead of Cryptor reading the book, Cyrus entered the room in the morning to find shredded paper everywhere.

"He's near impossible to entertain, Jackson." Cyrus stated, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Cryptor seems like he's always bored, unless he's in that sparing room..."

"There has to be something else that entertains him." Jackson questioned with a quirked brow. As the two talked, Cryptor zoned out with his head on the table. He just grumbled as Jackson finished his statement.

"Perhaps, but none that I am aware of and good luck getting him to tell you." Cyrus sighed, waving his hand. "Anyway, I have work to do. I only came down to check on you."

"Alright." Jackson sighed, looking down at the maps again. "I'll keep him focused on this I guess."

"I'll see you later today then, Cryptor." Cyrus said before turning to the door once again. Cryptor sat up once Cyrus said he was leaving, looking at the maps again, only giving a grunt to say goodbye to his creator. Once Cyrus left, Jackson looked at Cryptor and sighed.

"Shall we get back to work then," Jackson asked as he went through the maps. "What floors have you yet to see?" Cryptor sighed looking at the stack of papers in front of him with a frown before flipping through the stack in search of the sparing room. Once he found it he pointed to the level on the sheet.

"For the most part I've only seen this floor, although I have seen quite a bit of levels seven, eight, and nine, but I didn't really look at anything, I was more focused on finding you."

"Alright, so we can quickly review those and get them out of the way." Jackson said with a sigh. "Hopefully we can get through all of the floors today." Cryptor grumbled, sliding down into his chair, picking up his pen off the table as he did so.

"Hopefully." He grunted before starting to click his pen with his thumb, focusing on it more than the maps.

"Man, this wasn't on my job description." Jackson sighed as he sat up straight. Glancing at Cryptor as he clicked away at the pen, he shook his head. He picked up the map of floor seven and began explaining the layout of the floor. As they went through the maps, Cryptor hardly paid attention, and Jackson had to keep snapping his attention back to the paper, one time, Cryptor even attempted to get up from the table and walk to some other part of the lab, but ended up back at the table eventually. It took longer than it needed to, but they got through quite a bit of the maps. After some odd number of maps, Jackson decided to go on his break. He was far too frustrated to continue on. Cyrus was right when he said that Cryptor was impossible. He was far too stubborn to work with. Once his break was over, Jackson begrudgingly returned to the lab. He was ready to get Cryptor focused again, knowing that it would be difficult.

"I'm back," he sighed as he entered again. When Jackson came back Cryptor was laying on the floor, a place he didn't often go unless he was charging. But he was laying behind the desk with the maps on it, chair rolled away and pen not far from his hand. When Jackson spoke, Cryptor groaned not even looking at him and keeping his focus on the ceiling above.

"Horray…" He cheered in his monotone voice, lazily raising a wrist in the air to wave at Jackson, which the motion could be more closely compared to a noodle flopping around.

"I'm no more thrilled than you are." Jackson groaned, approaching the desk with his hands on his hips. "Can we please just get through this ASAP?" Cryptor grumbled as he got up off the floor, getting back into his chair.

"This is all stupid, it's not like I'll ever be going to any of these places."

"You don't know that." Jackson sighed as he sat down at the desk. "We can go to the map of the city for a bit if you want." Cryptor immediately perked up at the mention of the city before looking out the window behind them.

"Could you do that?" He questioned to make sure Jackson wasn't joking with him.

"Yes." Jackson said with a smile when Cryptor perked up. "We can actually take the map over by the window and I can show you the streets we can see on the map." Cryptor shifted a glance from the maps on the table then to the window, then to look at Jackson doubtfully, waiting for him to make a move before he did anything. Jackson gave Cryptor a playful nudge before standing and taking the map of the city.

"Come on." He chuckled as he made his way over to the window. "I'll tell you the street names for the streets we can see from here." Cryptor quickly got up out of his chair when Jackson went over to the window, following after him excited to know more about the outside world. Looking at the map, Jackson pointed at the street just below the tower. "We are at the center of the city and the street we are on is called Axe View." He said as he traces along the street. Cryptor nodded, looking from the window to the map that Jackson was tracing.

"Axe View…" He repeated to remember it better.

"Axe View has many intersections." Jackson stated, pointing at one nearby out the window. "That street that intersects is called Rose Blossom." Cryptor nodded, looking at the streets and the map.

"Rose Blossom…." He frowned. "Who names these things? Rose Blossom?"

"I donno, Cryptor." Jackson laughed. "I live on a street named after a lady. It's called Melanie. It is just seven blocks down Axe View and a right turn on Garcia avenue for three blocks. Then it's just a left turn and four houses down." Cryptor snorted at Jackson's words, crossing his arms.

"Nice, tell the guy with lasers where you live." Jackson laughed and shook his head.

"I don't think you'll do anything." He said as he nudged Cryptor again. "You were built to protect, not to destroy." Cryptor shrugged.

"Still, you shouldn't say unless you want them to come over to your house."

"Having you over would be pretty cool." Jackson stated with a grin. "Craig would probably like having you over too." When Jackson answered, Cryptor slowly turned his head from the window to look at Jackson flatly, without saying anything before turning to look out the window again.

"I wouldn't recommend that. Besides, I'm not allowed to leave the tower yet, furthermore this room."

"One day you'll be able to leave though." Jackson said with a nod of his head. "If you work hard to learn everything you need to know, that day might come sooner."

"Yeah…" Cryptor grunted.

"How about we get back to work then?" Jackson questioned with a quirked brow. "We can learn some of the city and go back to the tower just to get some of it out of the way?" Cryptor nodded, looking over at the map, finding where Borg tower was and following the street with his finger till he found the street Cyrus' house was on.

"I went to this street, that's the farthest I've gone outside of the tower." He turned to look out the window in the direction of the desert he knew was out there. With a frown he tipped his head at the sight of the sand. "Jackson? What's outside of New Ninjago City?" He asked. He had a feeling he'd never get the chance to see anything outside of its boundaries.

"Outside the city is the Sea of Sands." Jackson stated as he looked out at the city. "Beyond that is a whole content of forests and mountains and many other wonders. Maybe you'll get to see them some day. I wonder how you'll like the ocean." Cryptor frowned, looking at the desert.

"I don't think I ever will…" He sighed. "I don't think I'll ever get to leave the city…"

"Maybe someday you will though." Jackson said, giving Cryptor's back a pat. "You can dream... Maybe you can even ask Cyrus to take you to see the sights someday." Cryptor laughed softly for a couple of seconds.

"I doubt that would happen any time soon."

"Well, you never know." Jackson sighed, lifting the map up once again. "Shall we continue then?"

"I guess." Cryptor grumbled. A few hours later, after all his work was done, Cyrus went down to check on Jackson and Cryptor. When he arrived at the lab, he found Jackson and Cryptor at the window. They were going over every street in the city. Looking at the table, Cyrus could see that a few of the tower maps were shared while others had pen marks on them. Clearing his throat, Cyrus got their attention.

"How did the studying go?" Cyrus asked with a quirked brow. "Did he learn most of the tower?" When Cyrus spoke, Cryptor turned to look at him before crossing his arms and looking at the ground with a grumble. Jackson turned to face his boss and smiled nervously.

"He did... but he got fed up and shredded a few," he answered as he scratched the back of his head. "I tried to stop him, but he was very... determined."

"I see." Cyrus sighed and shook his head. Cryptor was just too stubborn sometimes. "I suppose we'll have to teach him some other way... how did teaching him the streets of the city go then?"

"It went pretty well." Jackson answered, glancing at Cryptor. "He was far more interested in that. We got pretty far with it too. Go ahead and ask him how to get somewhere."

"Okay... how do you get to the museum from the tower." Cyrus asked, looking at Cryptor as he did. Cryptor grumbled at the question, locating the museum on the map easily.

"You walk there. Or drive, whatever your preferred method of transportation is."

"That's not what I asked, but okay." Cyrus said, shaking his head. "You are dismissed Jackson. Sorry for sticking you with Cryptor all day. I don't really have anyone I trust with him at the moment, so..."

"It's alright." Jackson said as he headed towards the door.

"Wait, did Cryptor thank you?" Cyrus asked before Jackson left.

"Thank me? Thank me for what?" Jackson asked as he paused at the door. Cyrus looked back at Cryptor and crossed his arms. Cryptor was so ungrateful and bratty, it was hard to deal with him sometimes. Cryptor frowned, looking sheepishly at Cyrus for a couple of seconds before looking down at the ground, clasping his hands behind his back. For a second, he got ready to say something before he shut his mouth and decided not to. Cryptor was impossible. It was so tiresome to deal with Cryptor or to even try to teach him anything. Cyrus wondered how he even managed to keep his patients when around the android.

"Cryptor, Jackson did something nice for you." Cyrus stated. It was clear from Cyrus' tone that he was in no mood to play these games. "Please just thank him for the hand."

"Oh, that's what you want to say thanks for." Jackson questioned, shaking his head. "There's no need. I just-"

"Jackson, he has to learn to be grateful and polite." Cyrus grumbled. Cryptor grumbled, still looking at the ground, refusing to thank Jackson for several moments, Cryptor sighed realizing there was no way out of it.

"Thanks for the hand..." He grunted grudgingly.

"No problem, Cryptor." Jackson said with a slow nod. "You're welcome... I have to go now." Cyrus waved him off, more focused on Cryptor than anything. Cyrus steered his chair right up to the android and gave his shoulder a pat.

"Was that really so hard?" Cyrus inquired with a quirked brow. Cryptor growled, swatting away Cyrus' hand, leaving the question unanswered. "I get it, you're still mad at me." Cyrus groaned. It was no surprise. "This grounding will be over as soon enough, then you'll get your old privileges back. I even have some things for you to see when you're free." Cryptor grumbled walking away from Cyrus and plopping down in a chair by the map covered desk.

"Terrific." He hissed in irritation.

"You won't have that tone when you see what I have planned for you." Cyrus sighed, shaking his head. He glanced back at the maps and frowned again. "You know, I might just have to have Pixal give you a tour of the tower since you shredded those maps." He added before turning to leave again. Cryptor sighed when Cyrus turned.

"Pixal…" He muttered.

He wanted out of the room.


	13. Chapter 13

Like Cyrus said, he had Pixal show Cryptor around the tower. She reported to him that Cryptor seemed disinterested in most of the floors, but appeared to understand the layout of each floor they covered. Satisfied by the report, Cyrus allowed Cryptor to focus on studying the city's streets and buildings with Jackson. It was easier to keep his focus since he was more interested in the city than anything else. Cryptor made a lot of progress, though his attitude did not improve. At least his attitude towards his creator did not improve. Cryptor seemed to favor Jackson over Cyrus. Not that Cyrus expected anything less from the grumpy android. Once the grounding was over, Cyrus allowed Cryptor to roam the tower freely again. He even gave Cryptor extra sparing time since he had been cooped up for so long. Cryptor, was more than happy to get out of the Lab and avoided it as much as possible now. He would roam the halls and rooms of the tower aimlessly, just to get out of the Lab, once he even walked into the Lobby, but was quickly escorted out of it after some problems had arisen.

Lobby wasn't the only strange place he wandered into either. One time he strode into the Break room around lunch time, which disturbed quite a bit of the people in the room.

He's not allowed in there anymore.

The extra sparing room time though, Cryptor enjoyed. He could be compared to a child receiving cotton candy when in there. Usually Cryptor could be found sitting next to the room, sitting on the floor beside the door. Anywhere else he went he tended to cause problems so he just stuck to isolating himself, not in the lab. He hated the lab.

When Cyrus' work was complete, he called Cryptor up to his office. There he waited for the android in his regular wheelchair. When called to Cyrus' office that day, Cryptor wasn't sure what Cyrus wanted, but he followed the order anyway. Grudgingly. He entered the office, striding in cautiously, his arms crossed behind his back. When Cryptor arrived, Cyrus smiled and wheeled himself over to Cryptor with an outfit on his lap. He handed the clothing to Cryptor post haste.

"Put those on." Cyrus said with a smile. He paused to fix his glasses, pushing them back up onto his face. "Once you have them on, I want you to follow me." Cryptor frowned looking at the clothes that were shoved at him in confusion, but clumsily pulled the clothes onto himself over his clothes he had on, only removing his shoes to get on the tennis-shoes. Once he was clothed in the zip up hoodie, jeans and tennis-shoes, which he couldn't figure out how to tie, he walked after Cyrus as instructed.

"What's this all about?" He asked not knowing why he had to wear the outfit. Cyrus just smiled and shook his head. He bent over in his chair and tied Cryptor's shoes for him with ease. As he sat up, he gave Cryptor's arm a firm pat.

"We're going outside and I wouldn't want you to attract unneeded attention." He answered with a chuckle. Cyrus then wheeled himself around Cryptor and towards the door. Cryptor perked up, now on alert of the idea of going outside. "Come along, Cryptor."

"Outside?" He asked in disbelief as he pulled the hood of the hoodie up over his head.

"Yes, but we probably won't get too far giving the time." Cyrus said as he lead the android to the elevator. He hit the button to take them to the lobby once the doors closed.

"Hopefully I'll be less busy tomorrow so we can have more time to be out." Cyrus added as his fingers tapped on arm rest of his chair. "I suppose some free time is better than none though." Cryptor smiled, excited to get out of the building. Sure he had left once before, but he didn't think he could really count that as leaving the tower. Now he didn't know where they would be going, and that interested him. Once the elevator dropped them off at the lobby, Cyrus led Cryptor outside. They stopped at the sidewalk as Cyrus looked down both ends of the street. He had no real plan on where they were going. Just an hour long walk was all he really had thought out. Looking up at Cryptor, Cyrus spoke once again. "We can go either way. It's up to you." He pointed down one end of the street before adding, "We know that I live down that way. The other way you have not gone before. Left or right?" Cryptor nodded, knowing well which way Cyrus lived. Pointing the opposite direction, Cryptor shifted on his feet.

"That way."

"Alright, that way it is." Cyrus chuckled as he began wheeling himself in the direction Cryptor had pointed. "We only have an hour, so let's not get too carried away." Cyrus should have guessed that Cryptor would want to see something new and adventure a little bit. It was what the android had wanted for a long while after all. "I think that we can see some of the shopping district going this way and still make it back on time." Cyrus stated. Cryptor nodded, not paying much attention to what Cyrus was saying. He found looking at all the buildings from a down low view instead of the aerial view he always had up high in the tower fascinating. Noticing Cryptor looking at the city in awe, Cyrus smiled to himself. It made him happy to see Cryptor in a good mood for a change. It made him happier that Cryptor was not glaring at him and fighting everything he said. Though the android was difficult, Cyrus still cared about him.

Once the duo reached a crosswalk, Cyrus stopped Cryptor from walking into traffic and pointed at the signal light. Cryptor had been a bit too busy looking around to notice the street, so Cyrus reminded him to mind where he was going. When the light changed and they were told to go, Cyrus lead Cryptor across the street.

"How are you liking the city so far?" Cyrus asked as they crossed the street. Cryptor snapped his attention from the buildings when Cyrus spoke to him, sending a glance at him briefly, before he stuffed his hands into the pockets of the jacket and looked down at the ground with a grumble. There was that attitude again. Cyrus sighed, looking down a bit as he continued to wheel himself on the sidewalk. He could not help but feel like Cryptor hated him, which would not be much of a surprise.

"We'll take a left after this next block." Cyrus murmured. Cryptor frowned as he kept his head down as he followed, nodding in response to Cyrus. Sending another glance up at the buildings, Cryptor lifted his face into a smile.

"It's nice, the city." He finally answered Cyrus' question from earlier. "A lot better than being cooped up in the lab."

"You'll get more freedom now, you know." Cyrus stated, looking up at Cryptor. "You're still horribly difficult, but I trust you to use your best judgment." Cryptor snorted, keeping his eyes on the ground. Cyrus sighed as they went along, not bothering to talk to Cryptor at the moment. The android's bad attitude ruined the surprise. They went one without a word between them, touring the street in silence. By the time they were nearing the shopping district, Cyrus' arms were began to get tired. He started to lag behind Cryptor as they walked. Being in his mech chair most of the day must have made him a bit soft.

"Cryptor, remind me to make free time to work out." Cyrus grimaced as his left arm cramped up. Cryptor snickered, hearing Cyrus' words, but not stopping for him or slowing down his pace. He was more interested in the buildings than anything else; he even began to zone out of the whole world around him out of fascination by the buildings. As he looked something caught his eye and he turned to ask Cyrus about it before he locked up at the sight of his missing creator. He stood in place in confusion before he quickly dashed off in the direction they came from before he came to a halt next to an opening between two buildings as he caught sight of someone getting beat up. It didn't take long of analyzing the one-sided fight before Cryptor took notice of Cyrus' chair in the ally, before he charged in without hesitation, clocking one of the guys upside the head with a kick. Cyrus had no time to react between being grabbed and hulled off. One of the men had covered his mouth so he could not scream as they took him to the alley. The second he was in the alley, he was knocked from his chair and beaten by the three stronger men. Being unable to fight back, Cyrus received a few good punches.

When one of the thugs received a quick blow to the head, he was knocked aside. The other three turned their attention to the hooded figure. They left the crippled man on the ground to attack the other.  
Two lunged at Cryptor while the other went to grab a bat they had dropped when beating Cyrus. Cryptor remained silent, then looking at the thugs with a harsh glare. In the shade of the buildings the blue glow of his eye/eyepiece shown very vibrantly, making his hostile look even more petrifying. As the men lunged at him, he quickly avoided them with ease, swiftly and easily disarming the man with the iron bat. Now standing at a safe distance away from them, Cryptor sent a quickly glance at Cyrus before looking back at the thugs, beginning to look disinterested.

"Is this all I get for a fight?" He asked them as he shifted into a defensive stance. "Tch. Pathetic. You're even worse than the dummies I practice on." Cyrus managed to get himself sitting up against a wall as Cryptor fought the thugs. He could only watch helplessly as the tallest thug tried to close the distance between him and Cryptor, tossing a few punches that were easily dodged. Cryptor easily retaliated, knocking the aggressor out with a few swift punches. One of the two remaining thugs backed away slowly before bolting out of the alley. The last one backed away a little and glared at Cryptor. Without a word pulled out a pocket knife, flipping it open. Cryptor smirked at the cowardly thug before turning to the last one in the ally. When he pulled out the pocket knife, Cryptor stared for several moments before he broke out laughing. The guy looked so proud of himself, holding the blade. Like he had the winning advantage. Finally cutting his laughter to an end, Cryptor looked at the thug with a smug look. "You realize I can snap that wrist of yours faster than you can say your own name." The thug frowned at Cryptor's response. Glancing between Cryptor and his unconscious friends, weighing his options. Not being too bright, the thug lunged at Cyrus and yanked him up by the collar of his shirt. The crippled man was then pinned to the wall and the blade held near his thoat.

"Back down or the old dude's blood spills." He hissed, glaring at Cryptor as he did. Cyrus whimpered as he gripped the arm that held his shirt.

"I'll give you what I have if you just leave." Cyrus pleaded desperately. Cryptor snorted looking from the guy to Cyrus to the pocket knife, not taking the threat seriously.

"You are really pathetic, you realize that?" He snorted humorously. With a frown, he looked from the man to the blade and crossed his arms. Glaring at the blade, he knew he could knock it out of his hand from here with his laser, but he wasn't exactly the best with aim with it yet. He could easily hit Cyrus. Although then again, if he surrendered, the thug would take stuff from Cyrus, and he could still kill him. With a frown he glared harshly at the blade, making his decision, and fired one shot at the thug, his aim being ever slightly off and hitting the guys hand more than the blade, but regardless got him to drop it, only leaving Cyrus with a small scratch on his neck, not shedding any blood, if much at all. The thug cried out in pain as the laser hit his hand. He dropped Cyrus before clutching his hand and running off. Cyrus sighed with relief when the thug ran off. From the whole ordeal, Cyrus had a black eye, broken glasses, a split lip, and a bloody nose. Wiping some blood from his nose on the sleeve of his shirt, Cyrus looked over at Cryptor with a weak smile.

"Thank you." He said weakly. Cyrus was still shaking from the excitement of the traumatic event. Cryptor snorted, before walking over to Cyrus and picking him up to put him back in his chair.

"Just because they were pathetic doesn't mean you weren't." He grumbled as he put Cyrus back in the chair. With a frown he leaned down to examine Cyrus' beat up face. "Do you need to go to the hospital or something?" He asked wanting to make sure that Cyrus was okay. Cyrus sighed and shook his head, shifting in his seat.

"I should be fine." He answered, wiping away more blood from his nose. "I'm just a little beat up... might be sore in the face for a while, but nothing that calls for a hospital trip." More than just his face was sore, but he would not let that slip. Flashing a faux smile, Cyrus tried to wheel himself out of the alley. Cyrus winced when he tried to push his weight. A sharp pain had shot up his arm, having been kicked pretty hard by one of the thugs. Not wanting to show that he was as hurt as he was, Cyrus continued on. Cryptor frowned, noticing how obviously in pain Cyrus was before he grabbed hold of the handles on the back of the wheelchair and stopped Cyrus from continuing.

"Cyrus, I think you need to go to the hospital." Cyrus frowned and looked down at his lap. He was unable to hide the pain he was in and Cryptor was right. He probably did need some sort of medical attention. The hospital was not that close though. It would take up most the time they had left.

"Fine... Just drop me off and get to the tower safely." He mumbled in reply after a long pause of silence. "I'm sorry that your first evening out was ruined because of me." Cryptor nodded, glad that Cyrus wouldn't put up a fight like he would have. Leaving Cyrus still in the ally a bit, he walked out onto the main street and looked for the street name so he knew where he was and where he needed to go before walking back over to Cyrus, hoisting him up onto his back and then kicking the chair back into the ally, not even giving Cyrus a notice of what he was doing . Cyrus was a bit confused when Cryptor left him in the alley. He was even more confused when Cryptor hoisted him up. Then his chair was kicked back into the alley.

"What are you doing?" Cyrus asked, clinging to Cryptor as tight as he could without causing his arm pain. Cryptor smirked, hearing Cyrus' question.

"I'm taking you to the hospital, what do you think?" He answered before launching off the cement and dashing down the street.

"But what about my chaaair?" Cyrus cried, then grabbing onto Cryptor tighter, holding on for his life, sending even more pain throughout his body.

"I'll get it later." Cryptor shouted back at Cyrus as he ran. With the speed he was running his hood blew off his head, revealing his ninja hood underneath it and the rest of this eyepiece. His thought processes as he ran clicked in his head and the antenna on top began to flash frequently, almost like the siren to the ambulance. Running down the sidewalk, he attracted quite a bit of attention, even as he waited at a crosswalk, waiting for it to say he could cross. Getting impatient though, he growled, dashing into the middle of the street as cars were passing and jumped up on top of one, beginning to hop across the cars going through the intersection to get across.

Once he made it across the street, he began dashing on the sidewalk again as he entered the shopping district and the sidewalks became more crowded. Frowning at the slow pace he was reduced too, Cryptor turned out to the road again and began hopping on top of cars again until he got to a traffic light, which he then hopped on to get to the nearest building ledge, now running along the out-jetted covers on the buildings that provided shelter for people underneath. Running out of them though, Cryptor looked up, seeing the ledges on windows before he hurriedly began jumping up them as if they were a staircase, then running on top of roof tops with Cyrus still on his back, occasionally having to run on window sills due to taller buildings.

With each crazy stunt Cryptor did, Cyrus screamed in terror and in pain. His body ached and every move made it worse. The injured man pleaded and prayed for the parkour to stop. The intricate path that Cryptor decided to take ended up getting them to the hospital faster than it would have otherwise, and Cryptor landed on an empty helicopter pad on top of the hospital turning to look at Cyrus over his shoulder, Cryptor frowned, walking to a door on top of the building that led inside. "What am I supposed to do?" He asked, not knowing how to get someone to help inside the hospital. Cyrus was too terrified to speak at first. He shook and whimpered at first. His heart was racing a mile a minute. Cryptor had managed to scare the living daylights out of him.

"F-f-find a-a nurse." He managed to stutter.

"Right..." Cryptor sighed as he entered the building. Coming in from the top versus the main entrance was bound to cause them problems, but Cryptor could care less. Exiting the stair case onto one of the many floors, Cryptor looked for a nurse as instructed, just before encountering one, finding an empty wheelchair in the hallway and deciding to place Cyrus into it. Cryptor's antenna was still flashing which is what attracted someone to him.

When Cryptor pushed Cyrus to a more populated part of the hospital, a nurse noticed them. She approached them and looked at the injured, crippled man.

"What are you two doing?" She asked, looking at Cryptor with a concerned eyes. "How did you get up here without someone to attend to him?" Cryptor frowned at the question, looking down the hall became from before looking back at the Nurse.

"We just got here. Landed on the roof and came down the stairs." He answered honestly before changing the topic. "Cyrus is hurt, he needs help."

"The roof?" The nurse questioned with a strange look on her face. She shook her head and looked down at Cyrus. The poor guy did not look pretty "Doll, can you tell me everything that hurts?"

"Other than my face, my arm and I think I'm riddled with bruises," Cyrus answered, voice still shaking from fear. "My lip won't stop bleeding."

"It looks like you may need stiches, but I can't help you right now." The nurse said, looking up at Cryptor. "You need to take him down the main entrance and check in so he can be dealt with by the right people. Besides, this is the burn unit." Cryptor frowned, sending a glance at Cyrus again before grabbing the chair and pushing forward a bit before he stopped with a frown and turned back to the nurse to ask for directions. Reviving them, he managed to navigate down to the main entrance to do as the nurse said.

By the time they had gotten down to the main entrance of the hospital, Cyrus had managed to calm himself down. His body ached pretty bad, but at least he was not riding on the back of an android doing parkour

"O-okay... you can leave me here and head home, Cryptor." Cyrus murmured, trying to wheel himself away with one hand. "I'll be here awhile."

"Cyrus." Cryptor frowned, crossing his arms and sticking his foot into the wheel to keep it from moving forward, the light on top of his head still flashing his concern. "I'm not leaving without you; and you're in no condition to be wheeling yourself around." Cryptor was right. The injured man gave in and sighed.

"I suppose you're right. Once we get to see a doctor, you have to go home." Cryptor sighed, removing his foot from the wheel.

"Your chair back in the ally, you want me to bring it here or take it back to the tower?"

"It would probably be best to bring it here." Cyrus stated. "After I get patched up, I could call someone to pick you up..." Looking around, Cyrus could not help but notice the attention Cryptor was getting from the people around them. "Cryptor, maybe you should put your hood on." Cyrus said, clearing his throat. He then motioned to Cryptor's head. "You're flashing that light on your head..." Cryptor looked around them to see the people staring before he frowned, pulling a hand up to the back of his head and touching the antennae, not even aware that the blinking was happening.

"I…uh… sorry." Cryptor stuttered as he pulled the hood of the coat up over his head, the light on top flashing through its fabric ever so slightly, but mostly blocked it out.

"It's alright." Cyrus said, shifting in his seat a bit. He looked over at the counter where people checked in. "Just take me to that counter and I'll tell them what's up." Cyrus said, wiping away the blood from his lip as he did. "I'll do the talking." Cryptor nodded, looking at the counter and grabbing hold of the chair, pushing Cyrus over to the counter as he was asked, trying to keep his head down, embarrassment from having the light flash on his head, he had even stopped worrying about Cyrus and the light stopped flashing. Cyrus told the woman at the counter what had happened, explaining what was wrong with him. He was handed a form to fill out. The form was mostly to notify the doctors of any allergies or medications he might have. The form also told the doctors how urgent his problems were. Handing the form back to the lady at the counter, Cyrus winced. He had forgotten which arm had been hurt and used it by mistake.

"Alright, go to the waiting area and we'll call you when we have a room available." She said with a nod, hardly looking at Cyrus. "You may have to wait awhile."

"Alright," Cyrus sighed. "Let's go, Cryptor." As he waited for Cyrus to deal with everything, Cryptor immediately went on red alert when the lady at the counter told him to go wait. Quickly shifting his gaze between the woman at the counter and Cyrus.

"What do you mean wait?" He spat, the light on the back of his head beginning to flash again under the hood. "Cyrus needs help NOW! If I were to say he looks the worst here in this room! Do you see anyone else that has blood constantly running from their face?!" He shouted loud enough to be heard throughout most of the room. Finally Cryptor growled, grabbing Cyrus' chair and beginning to push him over to the waiting area. "Heck, what do I know!" He continued to shout, just starting to lower his voice. "I don't even bleed, I don't know anything. I could have half my body blown off and I'd be fine… I don't even need to be here." Roughly coming to a stop in the waiting area, Cryptor growled, continuing to walk, leaving Cyrus near the other people and leaning against one of the walls to watch him from a distance. Cyrus' face turned red as Cryptor made a scene. Many people stared at them, which was the last thing he wanted.

"I'm sorry." Cyrus apologized quietly to the people around him in the waiting room. "He's not use to these sort of things." When Cyrus was finally called back about ten minutes later, Cryptor wheeled him back while following a new nurse. She led them to a room and helped Cyrus get cleaned up. She was very gentle, though the sanitary solution used to clean the cut on his lip burned. He flinched slightly at first, but allowed her to clean it. Once Cyrus was cleaned up, the nurse excused herself and told the two that the doctor would be in shortly to check Cyrus out. Cyrus looked up at Cryptor and tried to crack a smile, but his lip stung a bit too much. "I'll call someone to pick you up soon," he murmured, guessing that Cryptor's battery would only last another hour or so. Cryptor frowned, looking at Cyrus. Ever since his outburst in the waiting room he had remained mostly quiet.

"Right." He sighed, not wanting to leave Cyrus. Knowing that Cryptor probably did not want to leave him, Cyrus gave Cryptor's arm a firm pat.

"I'll be fine," he said to reassure Cryptor. I can take care of myself." Cryptor grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Obviously not enough not to get mugged." Cyrus frowned and sighed.

"The mugging is exactly why I built you." He said, looking down at his lap. "Though I helped bring this city back and better than before, crime is still a problem."

"Obviously." Cryptor nodded with a sigh, looking at the ground and avoiding eye contact.

"Cryptor, I know you're upset but I will be okay." Cyrus tried. "I'm sorry." Just then there was a knock at the door. The doctor then entered and introduced herself to Cyrus, shaking his hand. Not wasting any time, she helped Cyrus onto the examination table, noticing right away how sore he was.

"So, you were mugged by four guys?" She asked, sounding concerned. "Says on your form that you have an injured arm and sore spots all over your upper body."

"Yes, that is correct." Cyrus said with a nod.

"Okay, I'm going to have you remove your shirt so I can take a look." The doctors said as she put on a pair of rubber gloves. Without question, Cyrus began removing his shirt, having some difficulty with getting his injured arm out. Once the shirt was removed, they could clearly see many dark bruises already forming along Cyrus' torso and arms. The doctor frowned and examined the damages. "I'm going to feel your ribs to make sure that none of them are broken." She narrated as she reached over. She felt along Cyrus' ribs and applied some pressure.

As the doctor began doing the procedure, Cryptor frowned, standing against the wall, arms crossed. Cryptor knew to stay out of the way of what they were doing to Cyrus, but he was ready to intervene at any given time. As the nurse felt Cyrus' ribs, all Cyrus felt was some slight pain. The bruises were to blame for that. Once the doctor was done checking his ribs, she reported that none of them were broken. Then she asked for Cyrus' injured arm. Cyrus lifted his arm and winced as she took it. The doctor carefully felt the arm, stopping when Cyrus sharply inhaled in pain.

"It's not broken, but there's definitely something wrong." She said. "I'll have to check it out after we get that lip of yours fixed."

"Okay." Cyrus said as she took a close look at his lip.

"It looks like you'll need stitches." She stated with a sigh. She took a closer look and shook her head. "Yep... I'll go fetch the stitches." With that, the doctor left the room to fetch the items needed, leaving Cryptor and Cyrus alone. When the doctor left the room, Cryptor stood in silence, staring at the door for a while before turning his head to look at Cyrus. The speed of his movements was beginning to slow down, due to running low on power, but he wasn't so critically low that he was moving like a snail. Cyrus watched Cryptor with a quirked brow. The android was moving slow enough for the inventor to notice, but it did not seem to be critically slow.

"After I get my lip stitched up, I'll ask to make a quick call and get someone to pick you up." Cyrus stated, shaking his head. "I'll see you tomorrow." When Cyrus spoke to him Cryptor frowned further, looking down at the ground.

"I don't want to leave you here." He murmured even though he knew what would happened if he did stay all night, the hospital would have an unconscious Cryptor on their hands to deal with and they didn't need that on top of everything else that was going on.

"I promise you that I am in good hands." Cyrus stated reassuringly. "It's not like I'm going to have some major surgery. All they'll have to do is help me arm... I should be done by the time you bring my chair back." Cryptor frowned with a nod.

"I'm taking it you are expecting it to be brought back tomorrow…" With as much power as Cryptor had left, he probably wouldn't be able to get the chair and come back and would likely power off mid-way.

"Yes... if it's even in that alley still by then," Cyrus sighed, shaking his head. "Oh gosh, what if it's not there?" Cryptor sighed, still looking at the floor.

"I'll make sure it's retrieved, if not by me before I get back to the tower." Before Cyrus could reply, the doctor entered the room with everything she needed. She set everything down and got a needle ready. Once it was ready, she set it down and got a sanitary wipe. She cleaned a spot by Cyrus' lip. Picking up the needle, she went right to injecting Cyrus with a sedative, earning a yelp as she did. Cryptor flinched at the yelp Cyrus made. Cautiously, and curiously, Cryptor approached Cyrus and the doctor slowly to watch what was going on better before quickly, as he could, backing off to give her space. Once Cyrus was sedated, the doctor went to stitching up his lip. It did not take long to get the stitches in since the wound was small. When she was done, the doctor examined he work, making sure everything was in order. Cyrus giggled as the doctor tilted his head to check out his lip.

"My face is numb." Cyrus chuckled light. "I can't feel a thing." Cryptor frowned immediately, noticing the strange behavior from Cyrus.

"What did you inject in him?" He asked hoping it wasn't something that harmed him.

"It was just a basic sedative so he didn't have to feel the stitches going in." The doctor answered, patting Cyrus' cheek. "Just a little prick hurts a lot less than getting stitches."

"You're a lovely person." Cyrus giggled.

"Looks like he's the sort of person who gets a little loopy with sedatives." The doctor chuckled.

"Cryptor. Cryptor, you have to go home now," Cyrus said, turning his attention to the android. "I have to call someone now." Cryptor furrowed his eyebrow, the light on the back of his head beginning to flash as he looked at Cyrus with full concentration just before sending his sight at the doctor. He didn't like what she did to Cyrus, at all.

"I don't think you should call anyone right now." The Doctor advised. "I need to checkout that arm of yours."

"Oh... okay," Cyrus said, lifting his injured arm. "Cryptor, can you call the tower and see if someone will pick you up?" Cryptor frowned, stumbling back at the request and the light on the back of his head sparked then dimming out in the middle of a flash, his power reserve deciding to cut off the part of him to save power.

"I-I… I can try…" He shuddered, completely confused how to do the task. He had never used a phone in his life, let alone touch one.

"I have a card with the tower's number on it." Cyrus murmured as the doctor checked his arm. With his free hand, Cyrus dug into his pocket and pulled out a business card. He handed it to Cryptor before wincing from being handled. Cryptor look the card from Cyrus, looking at it very confused before shifting a look to Cyrus.

"Right." He sighed, flipping the card in his fingers, seeing all sorts of information on it, but he found the number. "I… Should go…" He took a few slow steps away from the two before looking at the doctor. "He'll be okay right?" The doctor looked at Cryptor and gave a nod.

"I'll make sure that he gets taken care of, don't you worry." she said with a smile.

"You gotta get home." Cyrus said, waving Cryptor off with his good hand. Cryptor nodded after hearing the response.

"I'm going to go now…" He sighed before slowly dragging himself out of the room. After exiting, the first thing he did was search for a phone, forced to ask a staff member where one is. Getting to the phone, he unfortunately couldn't figure it out and almost chucked the device at a wall before asking how to use it. Then he ended up calling around five random strangers as he dialed the number for Borg Tower, immediately hanging up on all of them. Once he got the towers number right though he ended up calling about seven different times before he managed to get a staff member instead of the computer on the line. At that point he had wasted quite a bit of his remaining power. When the other voice began speaking on the line though, he almost sighed in relief.

"Hello, this Brittney, how can I help you?" The voice greeted as was required as always.

"Where's Jackson? I need to talk to Jackson." Cryptor immediately began growling into the phone, unfortunately very slowed down, making it sound a little strange.

"Uhm." Brittney responded after a couple of seconds by the strange request. "I'm afraid Jackson has the day off today and isn't in the building. I'm sure whatever yo-"

"I need to talk to Jackson!" Cryptor shouted back into the phone the best he could. "How can I contact Jackson now, it's an emergency."

"I'm sorry sir, but we aren't allowed to give information like that out to the general public."

"What don't you get about the word 'emergency'? I am anything but the general public and I need to talk to Jackson!"

"Sir I-"

"JUST GIVE ME HIS DAMN NUMBER SO HE CAN PICK ME UP BEFORE I POWER OFF!"

"Power-" Brittney fell silent on the other end of the line for a few moments before beginning to talk again. "I'm sorry, but is this Cryptor?"

"What do you think moron." He hissed back into the phone.

"I- Sorry Cryptor." She immediately apologized before some frantic rustling could be heard on the other side. "I'll get you his home phone number. Where is Mister Borg?" Cryptor growled at her question.

"Take a wild guess why I'm calling with a hospital phone number. Hurry up."

"Right." She answered questioning why Cyrus was at a hospital. "I have Jacksons number here, are you ready to write it down?" Cryptor frowned looking around before grabbing up some random paper and a pen.

"Go ahead." He gave the go as she began to read the number to him. When Cryptor had checked the stream of numbers down thoroughly, Cryptor immediately hung up on her, not saying thanks or goodbye or anything. Already irritated enough and running dangerously low on power, he dialed in Jackson's number carefully and waited for the line to be picked up. The phone was answered not long after it started to ring. The one to answer was not Jackson however. His roommate, Craig, answered instead.

"Hello?" Craig answered. Cryptor blinked in shock a bit at the voice coming through the line, knowing for sure it didn't belong to Jackson. Taking a few moments to recover, Cryptor remembered Jackson saying something about living with someone else.

"Does… Jackson live there?" He asked, his slow speed making the statement longer than it needed to be.

"Yes he does." Craig answered. "Would you like me to get him? Hold on, I'll get him." Through the phone, Cryptor could hear Craig calling for Jackson. Then Jackson voice came through the phone, but it sounded distant. Then there was a series of sounds to follow before Jackson was handed the phone at last.

"Hello," Jackson spoke through the phone. "Who is this?" Cryptor frowned at all the sounds in the background, feeling relived when he heard Jackson's familiar voice on the phone.

"Jackson?" He answered him before frowning and answering his question. "Its… Cryptor…"

"Cryptor? What's going on? Why are you calling me?" Jackson asked, sounding very confused. "Is something wrong?" Cryptor sighed, fidgeting to put his back against the wall.

"Well. Cyrus took me out of the tower today… Conveniently getting himself mugged." He began explaining slowly, then grabbing hold of the counter next to him. "I… Cyrus told me to call someone, at the tower. But you weren't at the tower, and I don't know anyone else... I'm running really low on power…"

"Oh no. You need me to pick you up, right? Well, I'll be right there." Jackson said quickly, sounding like he was already in motion. "You go wait in front of the hospital, okay?"

"I'll go ou-" Cryptor began to say before he collapsed to the ground, the phone ripping from his hand and hitting the cabinet a couple of times as it hung on its cord. Cryptor cursed, his words coming though the phone incomprehensible and very faint before he reached for the phone, still on the floor. "I'll try to get out there…"

"O-okay," Jackson said before hanging up. He hurried out to his car. If traffic was not too bad, he would be at the hospital in only a few minutes. When Jackson hung up the phone, Cryptor sat on the floor for several minutes before he lazily stood back up and slowly stumbling his way through the halls, his shoulder sliding along the wall as he made his way out, receiving some looks as he did so. Finally making it out of the hospital he immediately collapsed to the ground again, just to the side of the entrance. When Jackson pulled up to the hospital, he immediately saw Cryptor at the entrance. Without delay, he got out of the car and went right to Cryptor's aide. The android appeared to be very low on battery.

"Come on, I got you," Jackson said as he helped Cryptor up. "I'll get you home as fast as I can, buddy." When Jackson came, Cryptor lazily looked at him, heavily standing up with the help of him. "Need to get Cyrus' chair in ally…" Cryptor mumbled beginning to stumble forward with Jacksons help.

"What?" Jackson questioned as he helped Cryptor towards his car. "You left his wheelchair somewhere? Did you carry him here or something?"

"Yes." Cryptor answered. "It was, faster."

"You'll have to show me where you left it." Jackson sighed, sounding very tired. "This is not how I wanted to spend the start of my Friday night..."

Cryptor was loaded into the passenger seat once they reached the vehicle. Jackson buckled Cryptor in for him, not wanting to have to wait for him to do it himself. Jackson then went to the driver side seat and started up his car.

"Where did you leave his wheelchair and am I going to have to go back and pick up Cyrus?" Jackson asked as he pulled out of the hospital drive way.

"Chair is in between two buildings, on 21st Avenue, near the shopping district... I think it was near some take-out restaurant... Street wasn't popular at all..."

"Think I know the place." Jackson sighed, pulling his car onto the road. "Close your eyes and conserve your energy until we're there." Cryptor frowned, sitting awkwardly in the car, it was his first time in one after all.

"I don't get what closing my eyes would do for me…" He mumbled very slowly before falling silent, deciding to just sit still, not exactly focusing his vision on anything. Jackson drove towards the tower in silence. He turned on the street that and headed towards where Cryptor told him that he had left the wheelchair. Jackson glanced down each alley as he drove, trying to spot the damn chair. Spotting it without any prompting from Cryptor, Jackson pulled up to a curb and got out to get the chair. He quickly loaded it into the back of his car. Then he got back into the driver's side. Not even bothering to speak to Cryptor, Jackson turned his car around and headed back towards the tower. Cryptor noticed that Jackson had thankfully found the chair in an ally and was heading back for the tower. Shortly after Jackson got back in the car, Cryptor turned his vision up to the road before his vision blacked out and he stiffened quickly before he lost power. Cryptor powering off went unnoticed until Jackson pulled up to the tower. Groaning to himself, Jackson ran inside and got some help from employees who had the night shift. Once they got Cryptor out of the car, Jackson told them to take Cryptor up to the lab to charge. Leaving them to deal with Cryptor, Jackson drove all the way back to the hospital and dropped off Cyrus' wheelchair. Once that was done, Jackson returned home to enjoy the rest of his days off.

Meanwhile, Cryptor was plugged into his charger without being powered on. The android remained lifeless and ignored after that.


	14. Chapter 14

Cyrus ended up staying in the hospital for roughly a week before returning to the tower. When he returned, he had his arm in a sling and brace and a new pair of glasses to replace the old ones. There were still stiches along his lip and a bruise around his eye. His body was still sore, so he was given pain killers. The inventor was greeted with worried employees and people asking him if he felt alright. Dismissing them with assuring words, Cyrus went to find Cryptor. There was no doubt that Cryptor would be anywhere but the lab. Cyrus' best bet was the sparing room. Cryptor seemed drawn there like a moth to a flame. When Cryptor was not found there, Cyrus checked a few other floors, asking employees that he passed if they had seen Cryptor. No luck. No one seemed to have seen the android anywhere, not even Pixal. Growing worried, Cyrus finally checked the last room he would ever have expected Cryptor in. Entering the lab, Cyrus was shocked to see Cryptor powered off and connected to his charger still.

"Oh no. Oh no." Cyrus murmured to himself as he wheeled himself over to Cryptor. He quickly powered the android on, fearing how angry the android would be about the situation. He knew how much Cryptor hated being shut down for long periods. When Cryptor got powered on it took him a while to notice Cyrus in front of him, but when he did he immediately went on red alert. Quickly scrabbling to his feet, he ripped his power cord out of him and stumbling to the side from standing up too quickly.

"C-Cyrus!"

"Cryptor, I'm fine... Everything is in order. Don't worry about me." Cyrus said with a frown, preparing to tell Cryptor the bad news. He knew that Cryptor would not like what had happened. "Cryptor." Cyrus cleared his throat and looked down at his lap. "A-Apparently you have been shut off for some time... I was in the hospital for a week." Cryptor gasped at hearing the news.

"A WEEK?!" He shouted loudly. "A week?! I've- I. A week? WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TURN ME ON?!" Cyrus flinched at Cryptor's outburst. He had expected no less from Cryptor.

"I... I don't know why anyone didn't turn you on." Cyrus muttered, awkwardly rubbing the shoulder of his bum arm. "I assumed someone would... I'm sorry." Cryptor ended up growling, finally having all his systems running again, and stormed past Cyrus.

"HOW WAS I NOT TURNED BACK ON FOR A WEEK?"

"I don't know." Cyrus sighed again, wheeling his chair around to follow Cryptor with his one good arm. The android had every right to be mad, but Cyrus would rather see him happy. "At least you're on now... I'm okay... and I have something to show you..." Cryptor stopped his rant when Cyrus started his second statement. I was true that he was on now and there was nothing he could do about it. Then when Cyrus mentioned having something to show him, Cryptor frowned looking at Cyrus. "It won't get you mugged will it?"

"Uh... no, it's in the tower." Cyrus said with a little laugh to his voice. Cyrus began to wheel himself towards the door again. It was hard to get around with just one hand, but he managed. "Come with me and you'll see." Cryptor cleared his throat when Cyrus started to wheel away.

"Right." He frowned, looking at himself. "Can I get myself out of this first?" He asked, already going to unzip the hoodie.

"Oh, right." Cyrus laughed, pausing so Cryptor could get undressed. Once Cryptor had removed the disguise, Cyrus asked him to wheel him up to the eleventh floor. After a short elevator ride, Cyrus directed Cryptor to a room with machine and assembly lines. In the center of the room there was a mannequin with a set of armor on display.

"I had that made for you after that explosion that ruined half your face, Cryptor." Cyrus stated as he was wheeled up to the armor. "I figured that you could use something to keep you safer..." Cryptor blinked in shock at the equipment hanging on the mannequin for a few moments before following Cyrus over to it. Looking at it curiously, he nudge it up a bit with his finger as he looked under the round shoulder pad. Cryptor didn't exactly understand what it was he was looking at, but it looked cool. Cyrus smiled as he watched Cryptor examine the armor. Cryptor always seemed to like getting new combat items.

"Would you like to try it on?" Cyrus asked. Taking a few steps back to look at it, Cryptor frowned.

"What is it?"

"It's armor, Cryptor." Cyrus answered. "I'll explain what it does when you try it on." Cryptor looked at the armor for several moments before walking closer again and lifting it up off the mannequin with both hands. Then, carefully he lowered the piece over his head, hitting his shoulders and pressing down.

"You look very nice in that armor." Cyrus said with a smile. He wheeled himself a bit closer to the android and gave him a look down. "I'm going to show you what it does now." He added as he brought up a fist. The paraplegic then pounded his fist once again the chest of the android. "Hardly felt that, right?" Cryptor blinked a few times in confusion, feeling the slight push the armor gave against his chest. Then adjusting the armor on himself again, he gave a nod to Cyrus.

"It will keep you from taking as much damage in battle." Cyrus stated. His smile slowly faded as he imagined Cryptor in battle and getting hit. "I hope that all you have to deal with his thugs... it would be awful if the city were attacked by another monster of some sort." Cryptor stood, looking down at the armor on himself. Cryptor not exactly having any history lessons in his life so far looked up at Cyrus quizzically.

"Monsters?"

"Well... the city has been attacked by a giant snake, stone warriors, and a dragon Overlord who used the stone warriors to aide him." Cyrus sighed shaking his head. "There have been countless other threats throughout the ages. Ninjago is not a safe place. I'll have to teach you all about it." Cryptor frowned, the events of the past confusing him not even understanding how there could be a giant snake and questioning how big exactly the snake was, and how and what stone warriors were. And dragons? The whole concept of these creatures was seriously puzzling Cryptor up to the point where his eye twitched with a spark. Cyrus was a bit alarmed when he saw Cryptor's eye spark up.

"Perhaps it would be best to show you what happened later. How about we do something else until then." Cyrus blurted, not wanting Cryptor to over think. Cryptor shook his head as he tried to push the thoughts away, then nodding.

"Y-yeah."

"How about we go and try our hand at socializing." Cyrus asked as he led Cryptor out of the room. "Heaven knows you need more practice with that." Cryptor let out a huff and nodded.

"Right…" He grunted. "Socializing…"

"We can head back down to the lobby and try talking to people." Cyrus said as he led Cryptor to the elevator once again. Cyrus made sure that he had no other things today so they would not repeat what happened last time. The lobby was busy today since it was a public touring day. A few people looked curious about the strange android, but too intimidated to approach him. Instead they asked Cyrus what the android's purpose was. To which, Cyrus directed them to Cryptor, wanting him to answer. When Cyrus kept directing the civilians at him, he had to keep repeating the same thing constantly, and the repetitiveness was beginning to annoying the robot, he even tried to walk away but kept getting cut off to say the same thing to some random stranger. He mostly just tried to avoid interaction and leaned himself against a wall. Beginning to get bored though, he saw a kid come running past him, and decided to stick his leg out and trip the kid just for his entertainment, then going and mocking him about how he should be watching where he's going. Cyrus gasped when Cryptor tripped the child. The disabled man wheeled himself over to Cryptor and went right to helping the now crying child stand. The kid's parents stormed up as he did.

"What is wrong with you?" Cyrus spat angrily. He groaned and turned to the parents. They looked furious and had every right to be. "Go to the lab and I'll come talk to you after I deal with this."

"It's not like a tiny scratch is going to send him to the hospital, get stitches, and paralyze him for life." Cryptor muttered as he turned around with a huff, grudgingly trudging his way to the elevator and going back to the lab. When Cryptor left, Cyrus glared at him as he walked away. He then talked to the child's parents, getting yelled at and threatened by them. Once they talked it out, Cyrus went to the lab, ready to have a stern talk with the android. When Cyrus entered the lab Cryptor was standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall just by the door, only growling at the sight of Cyrus.

"Cryptor, you can't hurt innocent people like that." Cyrus said as he closed the door behind him, his tone full of disappointment. "You are supposed to be protecting and helping those people, not tripping their children and insulting them. I can say that I am very disappointed in you. I expected better."

"What is so wrong about me stepping out of my programming?!" Cryptor shouted at Cyrus as he pushed off the wall with clenched fists. "Why must I be so perfect?! Why can't I decide to do things on my own?! Why can't I when you or anyone else can do whatever it is they want?! You don't have specific programming you have to follow! You all can do whatever you want, be whatever you want! And here I'm a pathetic robot that has to follow its path perfectly and flawlessly! Why am I looked at as something so insignificant and disposable when I think on my own and have my own thoughts and feelings?! I may not be able to feel pain like a human and I may never know what it really feels like to have your face punched or something like that, but I still feel different things. I know what hatred feels like, what concern feels like. I know emotions and people don't ever stop to consider how I feel about things do they?! I'm just a machine, of course I don't matter!" Cryptor stopped for a couple of moments with a grumble. "Everything I do it seems I mess up. Why do you even try with me anymore? What do you even see in me? I break everything I touch, even myself and then just waste your time with all the problems I make. I'm so reliant on you and everything. You could stay up for three days straight, but I could never do that. I'd power off, something you can't do or any human. I would stay off forever until someone turned me back on, but a person can go to sleep and wake up freely! I didn't ask you to make me or teach me everything! Why am I so different from a person? Why must I be looked so far down on? Why did you make it so I could think for myself if every time I do I get in trouble?!" Cryptor's rant had Cyrus in shock. The android had so much weight on his shoulders. Everything he did was watched and judged. Nothing he did would ever be let go. So much was expected of him and it was not fair. Being a famous figure, Cyrus knew that stress well. Looking down, Cyrus shook his head, feeling sorry for his creation. His life had only just started and it was already too stressful to deal with.

"Cryptor, while other people see you as a machine, I think of you as my son. As my son, I want what's best for you." Cyrus started, his voice soft and sad. "Unfortunately, you are not seen as a person with feelings by most other people... And I push so hard for you to behave because..." Cyrus' was beginning to sound choked up. His eyes were welling with tears as he went on, "If the public doesn't like you... I'll have to shut you down permanently. If you are too violent or if you harm innocent people, I'll have no other choice." Cryptor frowned and looked down at the ground as Cyrus spoke, his hands still held in fists.

"I… I don't want to have to be someone I'm not…" Cryptor understood what Cyrus had told him, and the idea of getting turned off forever… "Why must everyone be so stupid? Why can't I just… It's not fair."

"I know it's not fair... I wish that I could just take it all back and let you be whatever you want." Cyrus murmured. It was too late for that. Even if Cryptor were to be allowed to do whatever, he would still have to behave himself. "Y-you know, the android I modeled you after protects people and still manages to be his own person." Cyrus stated, finally looking back up at Cryptor. "He's quite famous. His name is Zane Julien." Cryptor listened to Cyrus, lifting his head to look at him after mentioning Zane.

"I… Zane…" Cryptor mumbled.

"Have you heard of him?" Cyrus questioned. "He was one of the ninja who helped save the city many times. He was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves, just like you."

"Of course I haven't heard of him!" Cryptor snapped. With a huff, Cryptor crossed his arms. "If I knew I think you'd know." Cryptor sighed. "Why haven't you ever told me about him before?"

"I suppose the topic never came up." Cyrus stated, shrugging his shoulders. "I merely used his designs and improved upon them."

"Obviously you didn't do it right or I wouldn't be such a mess up!" Cryptor hissed at Cyrus. Cyrus flinched when Cryptor snapped at him. The android was really upset. Cyrus could not blame him though.

"Cryptor, you aren't a mess up." Cyrus stated, brows furrowed and his tone gentle. "You do things you shouldn't and make mistakes, but that's a part of life. You mess up, you learn, then you move on. That's how it goes." The inventor sighed and shook his head and added, "Anything you do is my fault though. I haven't raised you very well and I've failed you as a father. You are this way because of me. If anyone here was a mess up, it would be me..."

"No. You know what? You aren't my father!" Cryptor spat, pushing himself closer to the door. "You know why? Because I'm a machine, I don't have a father! I was created, man-made, not born. I can't have a father. If anything I should be calling you master, not Cyrus or father or Mister Borg!" With that, he pushed out of the room and ran, not caring about anything but getting out of the building. Making it down to the Lobby again he ran out the door and fled into the city. He didn't know where he was going; maybe he could find a dump and put himself there. That's where he belonged after all.


	15. Chapter 15

Cryptor fled through the city, but he knew there was nowhere for him in it so he fled to the edge of the city. There he walked along the farthest edge, looking out at the desert until he spotted something in the distance. It looked like heaps and heaps of stuff, what he couldn't exactly tell but decided that he would go that way. The city wasn't safe for him and he could be found easily.

So Cryptor trudged his way through the Seas of Sand, going towards the location in the distance and eventually decided that the heaps where just junk. Mostly likely a junk yard. Perfect. Eventually finding himself at the entrance, the sign read as "Ed and Edna's Scrap n' Junk." Walking in he began to search around, looking at all the towering piles of junk gleaming in the sunlight before his eyes fell on someone, it hadn't seemed like he had been noticed so he walked over to the person.

"Would you be able to destroy me here?" He asked, getting the male's attention by surprise. The man turned to the source of the voice, a little dumbfounded by the odd request. He gave the android a quick look down, dropping the hunk of metal he was pulling from the junk heap.

"What? Why would you want me to do that?" He questioned with a quirked brow.

"Ed, who are you talkin' to?" Called another voice from somewhere in the junk yard.

"Some robot man!" Ed called back as he wiped oil from his hands on a rag from his pocket.

"What's his name!" The other voice called again.

"I haven't asked him yet!" The man shouted back. "What's your name and why do you want us to destroy you?" Cryptor shuffled his foot, looking down at the ground.

"Cryptor. I'm Cryptor." He sighed, looking back up. "And I need to be destroyed because I mess everything up. I don't seem to matter and just waste Cyrus' time."

"Oh, well I'm sure you're not as bad as you feel." Ed said, giving the android a friendly pat. "Everyone feels down sometimes, doesn't mean you should jump right to suicide, Cryptor... Say, by Cyrus, do you mean that Cyrus Borg fellow that my son likes?"

"Cyrus Borg?" Called a new voice from somewhere not too far in the junk yard. They then heard scampering and sifting garbage. A blue adorned man emerged from behind a pile of trash. "Were you made by Cyrus Borg?" Cryptor frowned, turning his attention to the new face, slightly confused.

"I- uhm, yes. Cyrus Borg."

"Dude, Cyrus Borg invents the coolest stuff." The boy said as he approached the two. "I bet you're cool. What does that eye-thing do? Is that armor tough? What other things can you do?"

"Jay, don't overwhelm the poor guy." The man said as he shook his head. "He's having a hard time. I think he needs someone to talk to. What has you so upset, son?" Cryptor huffed, crossing his arms.

"Everything I do I do wrong. I do the opposite of what I'm supposed to. I need to be destroyed." He said, ignoring all the questions he was asked by the other person.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm sure it's not true." Ed said, putting his arm around Cryptor. "Why don't we go talk in the trailer? You can tell me what you do that you think is wrong." Cryptor pushed Ed away.

"I don't need to talk about it again!" He spat. "I already know I do everything wrong, I don't need any help telling that. I waste people time. I'm wasting your time. Why did I even come here?"

"Um... I'll go get mom..." Jay said as he backed away. His mother was better at comforting people than either him or his father.

"No, you're not wasting my time." Ed assured the android. "I like to help people and you sure seem like you need help. I just want you to know that killing yourself is not the way to go."

"Right, try telling that to the guy who apparently told me to jump in front of a car." Cryptor huffed in irritation. Ed frowned and shook his head.

"Some people can be so cruel." He stated, sounding disappointed with whoever the man was. "Don't listen to people like that."

"Ed, what's going on with our guest?" Edna asked as Jay led her over to the android.

"He's feelin' down and thinks he's a waste, Edna." Ed sighed, scratching the back of his neck.

"Oh, sweetie." Edna said with a shake of her head. "I bet you aren't a waste at all. Life just has yah down. No one is a waste."

"Yeah, and how could anyone made by the Cyrus Borg be a waste?" Jay said with a grin. "You look pretty cool too. I bet that you're one of the coolest android there is." Cryptor growled, clenching his fist.

"Why are you people being so- so nice?!" He shouted in frustration.

"Well, because we don't like to see people so down." Ed stated with a chuckle.

"We like to help people." Edna added.

"I'm not a person." Cryptor growled back at them through clenched teeth.

"Hey. Don't you say that." Jay said, speaking more sternly than before. "Androids are people too. My buddy Zane is a Nindroid and he's no different than the rest of us." Cryptor immediately flinched at the use of Zane's name, recognizing it from earlier, the word Nindroid confusing him quite a bit.

"A… A Nindroid?"

"Heh, yeah. He's a ninja and an android, so we call him a Nindroid." Jay laughed. "We're both in a team of ninja. Maybe you've heard of us." Cryptor huffed, crossing his arms.

"Hardly, I haven't exactly had any history lessons in my life."

"Well, we could teach you a thing or two if it will help get this suicide nonsense out of your head." Ed said as he motioned for Cryptor to follow him. "Let's go to the trailer to get out of this heat."

"Yeah, come on." Jay said as he and his mother went with Ed. Cryptor frowned, watching the group walk away for a couple of moments before he decided to follow after them. Once inside the trailer, Edna offered Cryptor a seat while Ed fetched some refreshments. Jay sat next to Cryptor and asked him things like what kind of android he was. Jay was told to let Cryptor be when Ed returned with a tray of lemonade, handing one to each of them.

"So, what were we going to talk about?" Ed asked before taking a sip from his glass. When having a cup placed in front of him Cryptor frowned and leaned down to eye level with the liquid filled cylinder to stare at it before he sat back up and picked it up by the lip of the cup to look eye level with the liquid inside again before looking at the others all sip out of theirs and placed it back on the table.

"You said you know Zane." Cryptor mentioned as he delicately pushed the drink away from himself with two fingers, not quite sure what to do with it. "What's he like?"

"Oh, Zane is really cool." Jay laughed at his little joke. Then he remembered that Cryptor probably would not understand it. "Zane is the white ninja of ice, yadda yadda. He's a cool Nindroid who is very nice. He's a bit odd and doesn't have much of a sense of humor though, but we love him anyway."

"He was quite polite when we met him." Ed added.

"Yes, he seems so sweet and gentle." Edna said with a smile. Cryptor huffed, looking at his drink that now sat further away on the table.

"Right, of course. He sounds like a nice guy." He answered not all that sincerely. Cryptor could already tell that he and Zane were polar opposites of each other.

"So, why did you want to know about Zane?" Edna asked with a quirked brow. "Where did you hear about him if you haven't learned a bit of history?" Cryptor frowned, beginning to slide his finger around the lip of his cup that was still in arms reach.

"Cyrus told me today that I was built with his design, just modified. But I have the same purpose, to protect the people who can't protect themselves." Cryptor sighed. "Obviously I can't do the task right though. I hurt people instead. Even the one time I had to protect someone, I ended up ripping the skin off of the offenders hand with a laser, not exactly the best decision although I'm sure he's fine."

"Oh, well... I'm sorry to hear that." Edna murmured. "I-I'm sure that you just need time and practice. No one is great at anything at first."

"Yeah, and maybe get better with that laser you spoke of." Ed added, sounding a bit uncomfortable.

"Yeah. I mean, Zane wasn't always that great with his powers and neither was I." Jay stated. "Once when Zane was using his full potential, he accidentally froze all of us." Cryptor snorted.

"No kidding. First time I got it to work I ended up blasting my own hand off." He said showing his charred black hand to them. "Then I caught the whole first floor of the tower on fire trying to repair it myself. Cyrus trapped me in the lab for three weeks after that. Not fun." Cryptor sighed. "As I said, I do everything wrong. I'm a mess up and need to be destroyed before I cause more problems."

"Dude, do you know how many fires and explosions I've caused?" Jay asked rhetorically. "When you're a teenager with big tools, you're going to have accidents."

"Making mistakes is a part of growing up." Ed added. "While fires and injuring yourself are very bad accidents, didn't you learn something from them?"

"Maybe to be more careful and not to repair yourself." Edna added to Ed's last point. Cryptor frowned.

"Don't fix yourself leave it to Cyrus. Don't pull all-nighters or you power off. Don't let random people stuff you into a computer and mess with your coding." Cryptor listed off before he groaned, resting his head in crossed arms on the table. "Why must I be so reliant on others?"

"You might be reliant on others now, but who's to say that you'll always be?" Ed said with a shrug.

"And who says that needing others is a bad thing?" Jay asked, finally drinking from his glass. "People need others all the time. I need my brothers and my parents." Cryptor sighed, sitting back up again.

"I guess you're right…"

"Now, are you still wanting to be destroyed?" Ed asked when Cryptor sighed. "Because we're willin' to keep talking as long as it takes." Cryptor stayed silent for a few moments, his finger circling the rim of his cup again before shoving it away further.

"I guess." He finally answered. "I should probably head back to the tower soon anyway; I don't need to waste any more of your time."

"You didn't waste our time, dear." Edna said with a frown. "Jay, would you be a dear an take him home?"

"No problem!" Jay blurted, standing up as he did. He waved for the android to follow as he approached the door. "Come on, let's go." Cryptor frowned at Jay before standing up as well.

"Right… I can get back on my own…" Jay stopped at the door and looked back at Cryptor.

"I know, but this gives me an excuse to meet Cyrus Borg." Jay stated with a pouty look. "Please let me go with you~" Cryptor grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Fine…" He muttered before walking out of the trailer, not caring if he followed or not.

"Yes. Thank you!" Jay cheered, practical beaming with excitement. He took off towards the exit of the junk yard, only to wait at the exit for Cryptor. Cryptor smirked as Jay sped past him to the exit, quickly without hesitating, running over stopping and beginning to walk into the dessert, just making sure he always kept himself in front of the other. After not very long of walking, Cryptor spoke to the human.

"You said you were a ninja correct?" He called over his shoulder.

"Yeah." Jay answered with a nod. "Blue ninja of lightning to be exact, my metal friend." Cryptor smirked, then turning around and looking at Jay.

"Well then, mister 'blue ninja of lightning,'" Cryptor said mockingly. "Would you be up for a race?" Jay smirked and took off past Cryptor.

"You know it!" Jay snickered as he took a slight head start. Cryptor grinned when Jay took off, but fairly easily he caught up on the distance, then running in front of Jay backwards.

"If you beat me, I'll personally make sure that you meet Cyrus, but if not, I can't exactly make any promises." He stated. "Meet me on Prospect Street in the alley between the Mike's Automobile Shop and the Central City Bike and Sports so we can make sure we arrive at the same time to the tower. If I get there first I might get pulled off and you'll never see me or Cyrus." With those instructions, Cryptor turned back around to resume his run back to the city. Easily arriving back to the city, Cryptor weaved through the streets till he got to the more crowded parts of the city where he began hopping across cars until he made it to the traffic light to hop to the buildings where he traveled to the destination the rest of the way.

Knowing just where Cryptor was talking about, Jay snickered to himself. The ninja knew some short cuts to get there as soon as possible. He and the android parted ways, both having their own paths in mind. Turning through an alleyway, Jay cut through and Jay walked across the next street he encountered. He was nearly hit by a car, but got out of the way in time. Cutting through more and more alleys and crossing more streets, the ninja got closer and closer to the destination. The blue ninja soon arrived at the alley on Prospect. Looking around, Cryptor was nowhere to be found.

"Woo-hoo. I won!" Jay gloated to himself. "I get to meet Cyrus Borg." Unfortunately, Jay wasn't the winner. Cryptor had arrived at the ally far before Jay, but had just decided to stay on top the roof of the Bike shop, not exactly having the easiest way down. When Jay came rushing into the space, Cryptor laughed at his celebration to himself, looking down at Jay from his seat on top of the building.

"Sorry to break it to you but you didn't." Cryptor called down to him humorously. "You took too long."

"Aw man." Jay groaned when he looked up to see the android. The ninja gave a pouty look, crossing his arms as he did. "Well... come on down and we'll head to the tower I guess." Cryptor smirked before standing up.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you see him anyway." Cryptor said to Jay. "I'll be down there in a minute." Turning around, Cryptor walked over to the store front of the building, quickly climbing his way down its surface and meeting up with Jay on the ground, getting a couple of weird looks as he went down it. Upon meeting up with Cryptor, Jay shook Cryptor's hand.

"That was I good race." Jay said with a smile. Usually he would be pouting about losing, but he still had a chance to meet his idol. "We should head out now." Cryptor nodded.

"Good race." He agreed before turning around and walking again. As he led Jay down the streets to the quickest route to the short distance to the tower, civilians would often give the robot a few glances, he wasn't exactly a normal sight to see. As they walked on, something itched at Jay. He was too excited about possibly meeting Cyrus. He just had to talk about him.

"So.. uh.. what's Cyrus like?" Jay asked. He scratched the back of his head as he thought about how awesome Cyrus could be. "Is he super cool?" Cryptor huffed.

"He's an exasperating douche who doesn't once concern his own health and makes up the most ridiculous ideas. You know he's been thinking about making a Nuclear toothbrush? A Nuclear toothbrush! What does he even expect to accomplish with that? He has a whole room in the tower full of these inventions that are just the most absurd ideas that who knows where he got the idea from. Most of them are probably just results of pulling three or more day all-nighters, but honestly? Why is he so stupid? You know he got himself mugged and tried to convince me that he didn't need to go to the hospital? He just got out today so he's still a little beat up, but still." Cryptor groaned. "He's even worse when you see him sedated. He's a moron. Said he would make sure I got back to the tower, but then I had to do all that by myself, thus I ended powering off and everyone at the tower is and idiot and didn't once consider to power me back on or even question where I was. Not even P.I.X.A.L. I would think I could have more trust in her at least. One time he stayed up so long he couldn't even stay awake for a minute and I had to help him to his office, conveniently right after he had decided to jump on me in the middle of the night and reprogram me a little." Cryptor sighed. "You know I honestly don't remember many of those details from that event. I know someone told me to jump in front of a car and I followed orders and did so, Jackson saved me before I took too much damage but none of that would have happened if Cyrus hadn't turned and imprisoned me in a technological prison. Then apparently after I got hit by the car one of the staff members decided it would be a good idea to reprogram me, which she did a terrible job a doing and deleted a few of my memories, but if Cyrus hadn't been such an idiot I wouldn't have had to go through all of that." Cryptor grumbled crossing his arms. "In short, Cyrus is a jerk."

"Oh... uh... I... I don't know what to say." Jay said awkwardly. "He can't be all that bad, can he? I mean, he seems so cool." Cryptor snorted.

"Cool? I haven't seen him do one thing 'cool' in my life."

"Well, see the city around us." Jay said as he motioned to the tall buildings. "Everything is the way it is here because of Cyrus. The city was wrecked and he came along to help everyone out. Not to mention that he built you and you are very cool." Cryptor looked up at the buildings before shaking his head with another snort.

"I'd like to see if he lifted a single bolt to any of the buildings."

"His technology built these, wise guy." Jay laughed. "His tech is the coolest stuff. You should have seen the city before Cyrus showed up. It wasn't nearly as cool. Oh, and by the way, every inventor has failed inventions. Mine could fill an entire warehouse."

"But seriously, a Nuclear Toothbrush? What would even be the point in that?" Cryptor scoffed as he stopped when he could see the stairs that led into the tower.

"Who knows?" Jay shrugged. "You said he was up for several days straight. The human mind slips as it gets less and less sleep. Hopefully he will stop with the all-nighters." The two then climbed the steps to the tower. Through the glass doors, they could see a man in a wheelchair waiting at the door. Of course Jay recognized him as Cyrus Borg right away. He looked worried. When they entered the tower, Cryptor frowned when he saw Cyrus by the entrance, awkwardly looking down, knowing he was in trouble. Cyrus was almost too relieved to speak when he saw Cryptor in one piece. He wheeled himself a bit closer to the two and glanced at Jay. Shifting nervously, Cryptor looked back up at Cyrus.

"Uhm… Cyrus, this is Jay… I met him while I was out…"

"Well, if it isn't the blue ninja." Cyrus chuckled. "Glad to see that he was in good hands. He had me so worried..."

"Yeah, my parents and I gave him a good talking to." Jay said, hardly able to contain his excitement.

"Yes, thank you for that. I owe you a debt of gratitude, Jay Walker." Cyrus said, bowing his head.

"Oh my gosh, he knows my name!" Jay squealed, clasping his hands together. "I'm your biggest fan by the way." Cyrus chuckled and offered his good hand to Jay, shaking it respectfully. To which, Jay squealed more. Then the inventor's attention turned to Cryptor again.

"I wish you hadn't run off like that, but I'm glad you're safe and you didn't get into much trouble." Cyrus said while shaking his head. "Jackson told me that you jumped on the roof of his car for a short period..." Cryptor was slightly confused with the conversation that was happening, when Jackson was mentioned Cryptor frowned.

"Jackson? I… didn't notice… I didn't jump on many cars, mostly on buildings."

"So that's how you beat me... shoulda thought of that." Jay said as his hands perched on his hips, shaking his head.

"Well, he was one of the few cars you stood on I guess." Cyrus shrugged. "I'm a bit disappointed in you for running off in the first place."

"Like you said before, at least he was in safe hands." Jay said. "Speaking of safe hands, Cryptor said that you were mugged. I didn't think it was that bad. I mean the mugger put you in a wheelchair!" Cryptor stood blinking in shock at Jay's exclamation before he burst out laughing at the blue ninja.

"You don't know? You really don't know?"

"I... I have been paralyzed my whole life." Cyrus murmured, looking down awkwardly.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Jay shot back, sounding really upset with himself. "I didn't know. I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's alright, really." Cyrus sighed, rubbing his injured shoulder with a frown.

"I didn't know people could not know!" Cryptor kept laughing at Jay.

"Cryptor, you can stop teasing the poor guy." Cyrus sighed sternly. "I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time with our drama. You may head home if you'd like, Jay Walker."

"Call me Jay, and it's really no bother." Jay said as he scratched the back of his head. "It was actually nice to meet Cryptor at the Scrap N' Junk."

"What were you even doing at a junk yard anyway?" Cyrus asked, looking back at Cryptor once again.

"He wanted my father to destroy him." Jay said with a frown. "We talked him out of it though."

"Wh-what," Cyrus gasped. His eyes were welling with tears almost instantly. It was like being told that your kid was trying to kill themself. "Cr-Cryptor, why would you want to be destroyed? Are you that unhappy? I'm s-so sorry. Please forgive me." Cryptor grumbled, crossing his arms and looking down at the ground, his laughter was immediately cut to an abrupt stop.

"I'm sorry, Jay, but this is an important issue that I need to address." Cyrus murmured, tears threatening to fall. "Cryptor, let's go to my office and talk in private. Please." Cryptor huffed, without arguing, and walking off to go towards the elevator. As Jay left, Cyrus wheeled himself after Cryptor. It grew harder to see as his eyes welled with tears. He had no idea that Cryptor was that unhappy. He had driven his creation to such thoughts. It was truly heartbreaking. Once they arrived at the office, Cyrus pulled Cryptor down by his arm and into a weak hug. He sobbed slightly as he held Cryptor with one arm.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were that upset?" Cyrus asked with a trembling voice. "We could have worked it out." When pulled into the hug, Cryptor frowned but didn't pull away. "I'm fine am I not?" He asked Cyrus. "Does it look like I'm broken?"

"But... but you wanted to be destroyed." Cyrus murmured, trying to dry his eyes. "You thought about being destroyed and that's not good. I drove you to it. I'm an awful caretaker."

"I'm fine." He grumbled, the light on his head beginning to flash slowly. "You didn't drive me to anything idiot."

"W-well... I-if you ever feel like that again, please tell me." Cyrus said, trying to keep himself from crying anymore. Cryptor didn't answer Cyrus and just huffed, not wanting to promise something like that. After a break of silence though Cryptor sighed.

"I will…"

"Alright." Cyrus said with a nod. Drying his eyes once again, he tried to smile. "Now... how about we put all of this behind us and move?" Cryptor frowned, his light on the back of his head ceasing its slow flash and nodded, finally pushing away from Cyrus.

"So... how did you like running around the city freely?" Cyrus asked, wheeling himself over to his mech chair. He had left it here the night they went out. Cryptor sighed.

"It was fun." He answered, crossing his arms.

"I bet... you seem fine too. No scratches or scuffs." Cyrus said as he began to climb into the chair. "You seem to do fine out in the city on your own. Maybe I'll let you roam the streets nearby freely if you behave and get better at not tripping children." Cryptor huffed, looking towards the exit.

"It was just one."

"Yes, and if you promise to never do it again you'll get to roam the nearby streets freely." Cyrus said. The inventor nearly slipped, having trouble climbing into his other chair with one arm. "A... a little help please?"

"Yes, yes. No more tripping little children who shouldn't be running indoors anyway." Cryptor snorted not very sincere before walking over to Cyrus, grudgingly picking up the injured man and placing him in the chair.

"Thank you." Cyrus sighed. "I think it will be easier to get from place to place now..." Cyrus checked the time and sighed, pulling a bottle of pills from his jacket pocket. It was time to take his pain killers. "Ugh... I'm no good at dry swallowing these." Cyrus grumbled and pulled out a crinkled bill as well. "Down on the floor below us, there is a vending machine with beverages. Can you please get me one so I can take these damn things?" Cryptor frowned, looking at Cyrus' hand.

"You realize I've never even touched that machine right?" He asked knowing where the machine was but of course he would have no idea how to work it.

"Right." Cyrus sighed, already beginning feeling incredibly sore. "Ask for help. My body is aching." Cryptor sighed, taking the crinkled dollar from Cyrus before turning around.

"I'll be right back." He grumbled before getting in the elevator. Going to the floor below, Cryptor went to the vending machine, looking at it for several moments then trying to get it to work. Getting frustrated with the thing, and inconveniently having no employees nearby, Cryptor punched the keypad in irritation, cracking and breaking them in. Finally having broken the machine, Cryptor stood back and stared at the machine before punching the glass. Not doing anything to it with a punch though Cryptor frowned before he decided to do something even more stupid. Standing in front of it, he shot one laser, making a small hole in the glass and going through a few soda bottles in the machine. The crack in the glass quickly spread, shattering the clear wall into several pieces and falling to the floor in front of the machine, soda then spewing out everywhere out of the machine, including onto Cryptor. The soda soaked him, getting everywhere on him, even on his face, resulting in a very loud screech that could at least be heard throughout the whole floor. Face and body now drenched and dripping the brown carbonated liquid, Cryptor blindly reached into the machine, grabbing for some random beverage and fleeing from the scene, static filling his vision and crashing into the wall a couple of times as he ran for the elevator. Making it to the elevator, having left a dripping mess where he went, Cryptor stood, straining to read the buttons for the office again. Finding it, he hit it and went up a floor, stumbling to get out of the wet floored elevator and ramming into the side, missing the exit and hitting half is face on the wall. The android was greeted with a blank stare at first. The inventor look at his dripping creation, knowing roughly what happened without needing explanation. A small smile cracked on his face as he tried to keep himself from laughing. While he was sure that there was a lot of damage and a big mess one floor down, he could not help but see the humor in this sight.

"I can see... I can see you had some... trouble." Cyrus snickered as he steered himself towards the android, having more trouble holding back his laughter. "We're gonna have to clean you up, Cryptor." Cryptor frowned, groping his way out of the elevator and shoving whatever drink it was he got at Cyrus, then banging on the side of his head with his other hand in hope of getting all the static to go away. With a frown he shook his head and looked at Cyrus with the static blanketed vision.

"I can't see…" His voice came out just slightly fuzzing out.

"Oh bother." Cyrus sighed. He set the bottle and the pills in his lap before taking Cryptor's hand and guided it to the side of his chair. "I have some tools for cleaning your parts in the lab. I'll guide you there. Mind your step."

"I'm not completely blind." Cryptor explained with a grumble. "There's just a lot blocking it…" Cryptor frowned as he was led back to the elevator by Cyrus, the liquid, still sending waves of shock into his wires. "It hurts…" Cyrus hit the button to take them down to the level the lab was on. Once they were on the floor, Cyrus helped Cryptor towards the room. The poor android was in pain and stumbled here or there from his foggy vision. The two passed Pixal in the hall as they headed to the lab.

"Pixal, can you please have someone clean up a mess Cryptor made on the ninety ninth floor?" he asked as he passed her. "Also, have a clean outfit sent to the lab for the poor guy."

"Yes sir." Pixal said, skewing her path toward the elevator. Then the duo made it to the lab. Cyrus helped Cryptor sit on the table before fetching his cleaning tools. The first thing he did was dry Cryptor's face and eyepiece. Cryptor frowned when Cyrus started cleaning him off, trying to avoid the treatment and the light on the back of his head flashing inconsistently and many of them cutting off mid flash, dimming out and flickering.

"Cyrus." He grumbled not allowing Cyrus to clean him off easily. "You need to take your pills."

"Cryptor, they just make it so I don't get sore." Cyrus sighed. "It can wait a moment." He tilted Cryptor's head to the side. With his ring finger he tugged the eyelid down. With a cotton swab between his index and thumb, he began to clean the optic sensor for any remaining soda.

"I'm probably going to have to shut you down." Cyrus sighed. "Why did you have to make a mess?"

"I told you I didn't know how to use it." Cryptor grumbled, still trying to avoid Cyrus. "Now stop being an idiot and take the damn medication."

"Alright, fine." Cyrus groaned, reaching down to grab the pills. Taking two, he popped them into his mouth and washed them down. "Happy?"

"Yes." Cryptor grunted, as he stopped struggling against Cyrus and light stop flashing.

"Alright then. Please lie down so I can get you cleaned up." Cyrus said as he looked through his tools.

"Don't leave me off too long; I don't want to have to be off for another week." Cryptor huffed, doing as instructed.

"It may be a few hours depending on how much is in there." Cyrus explained as he set the tools aside. "I'll wake you up as soon as I can." With that, Cyrus powered his creation of. Without delay, he went right to cleaning Cryptor diligently.


	16. Chapter 16

After cleaning Cryptor's parts and circuits, Cyrus cleaned off his armor and washed his mask as well as dressing him in clean attire. The process was tedious with one good arm, but he got the job done. Once everything was in order once again, Cyrus moved on to make some much needed improvements to Cryptor. The improvements took some time, but they were needed. Once that was done, Cryptor was powered on once again.

Nothing happened for a week at the tower, nothing strange that is. Cryptor didn't create any new problems and Cyrus was recovering. Cyrus' recovery was rather fast. His shoulder was nearly healed and no longer required a sling, though his wrist still needed the brace. His bruises were fading too. During that week, Cyrus gave Cryptor more freedom. He was allowed to go on walks around the nearby streets as long as he was disguised and kept a cellular phone on him. Cryptor was to check in if he was out longer than an hour and could not go too far. Along with these limitations, Cryptor was advised to not bother citizens and to stay out of traffic.

A week after the soda incident, Cyrus was in his office working on the designs for a new invention. Cryptor was currently out on one of this 'free runs' around the city.

"Mister Borg?" An employee said entered Cyrus' office. "There is someone in the Lobby demanding to see you. His name is Zane, should I send him up?"

"Oh, yes. Go on and send him up." Cyrus replied, pushing the blueprints aside. Zane's presence was rather sudden and unannounced, but Cyrus would not turn him down. The employee nodded and left, eventually the door to the elevator opening again, the white ninja stepping out of the elevator, looking at Cyrus as he was the only one in the room.

"I apologize for intruding unexpectedly, you are Cyrus Borg correct?"

"Yes and you are the white ninja, Zane Julien, right?" Cyrus chuckled, steering his chair out from behind his desk. "What brings you to my office if I might ask? It's not every day a hero visits."

"There's no need to address me with that title." Zane bowed briefly before looking at Cyrus' chair. Of course Jay had rambled on about discovering the man's handicap so it wasn't a surprise. "My brother, Jay, came here a week ago. He's been sharing the story with my brothers and I constantly, but he mentioned one thing I wanted to talk to you about." Zane explained to Cyrus. "He mentioned you had built a new android, Cryptor I believe was his name?"

"Yes, Cryptor is his name," Cyrus answered with a nod. He glanced out the window as he thought about his creation running around out in the city. His attention soon turned back to Zane. "So, have you come here to talk about him?" He asked with a tilt of his head.

"Jay told me the story of how he came into the junkyard. He said the robot stated you built him like me, with the same purpose." Zane looked down with a frown before looking back up. "I understand he means a lot to you from Jay's story, but I'm not sure this robot you have made is a very good idea. By the sounds of what Jay has told me, he has developed at a very quick pace. My father spent his entire life raising me, and I still kept learning after he left me. It's not that I have any objections to you building another android like myself, I'm just concerned for the end result you'll have." Cyrus frowned, looking down at his lap.

"While it's true that he's developed quite fast and is still a bit rough around the edges, I know that he can do good. I believe in him. I care about him too." He answered the Nindroid. There was a pause as Cyrus turned his chair to face the window. He looked down at the city below. The disabled man's chest felt heavy as he thought about the day Cryptor met Jay. The day Zane was told about. With a heavy sigh, Cyrus shook his head. "I'm as worried about him and what he might become just as much as you are." he added, tightening the grip on his handlebars. "I still choose to believe that he's capable of great things." When Cyrus finished speaking, the elevator dinged behind them before Zane has the chance to reply, then turning his attention to it to see Cryptor step out of the elevator.

"Cyrus, I-" He spoke loudly before noticing Zane and the mood in the room, falling silent before adding to his sentence. "-'m interrupting something…"

"Oh.. no, we were just talking about you." Cyrus said with a faux smile as he turned to face the door again. He steered himself over to his creation and gave his shoulder a pat. "How was your walk? Did you have fun?" Cryptor frowned, looking at Zane in confusion.

"It was fine…" He mumbled not that interested in answering the question. Zane then walked over to Cryptor and Cyrus, holding a hand out to shake his hand.

"Hello. I'm Zane." He introduced himself, Cryptor looking at his hand in disgust before shaking it, just to keep Cyrus off his back. Cryptor recognized the name, looking down Zane in confusion.

"Zane…" He repeated. "I'm Cryptor…" He then added, pulling his hand away not wanting to hold the other one longer, then looking to Cyrus for answers of the thoughts going through his head.

"This is the android I modeled you after, Cryptor." Cyrus stated with an awkward smile. He could tell that Cryptor was not exactly happy about meeting the other. Hopefully this would go well, though he had little hope for that. "He stopped by because Jay told him about you." Cryptor frowned looking back at Zane.

"It's nice to finally meet you." The white ninja said with a nod. "Jay told me a lot about you."

"Right. I'm sure he did." Cryptor growled a response, now glaring at Zane. Honestly, Cryptor never wanted to meet the other robot he was made from. Cryptor already knew Zane was better than him and just seeing him pissed the younger android off even more. Cyrus could tell that things were not going very well. He was beginning to panic, knowing that anything could happen with Cryptor. Hopefully he could fast track Zane out of here and things could return to normal.

"So... I'm sure you must be busy." Cyrus said, patting Zane's back. "I would hate to keep you longer than needed. There isn't anything else you need, is there?" Zane shifted is gaze from Cryptor to Cyrus.

"Oh, no. I'm not in any hurry. The trip here from the Academy is quite a trip and a long way back." He paused for a few moments. "The kids there a quite a handful too, I would like to avoid them as much as possible." He laughed slightly, then looking back at Cryptor. "What is Cryptor here capable of?" Cryptor stood, glaring at the older robot, arms crossed and not saying anything.

"Well, he's stronger than an average man, the piece on his eye shoots a laser, and his combat is sufficient." Cyrus answered. He mentally cursed that Zane would not be leaving soon. "He has another function that I have yet to tell him about though. He'll probably figure it out soon though... Why do you ask?" Cryptor frowned looking at Cyrus in confusion.

"...Another function?"

"Are you sure giving him so many dangerous abilities and techniques are a good idea this early on?" Zane asked, Cryptor quickly turning to glare at Zane again, really pissed off.

"Well, originally Cryptor did not have the laser, it was added as after an incident." Cyrus began to explain. "It's proven to be a useful feature, Cryptor having saved my life using it. As for his strength, I figured he needed to be strong for his intended purpose. He's not incredibly strong, but strong enough to pack a punch. He needs to be strong and durable since his main purpose is to defend the city from the monsters we seem to attract." Cyrus cleared his throated and pushed his glasses back into place, glancing at Cryptor as he did. "The other feature is useful for said purpose too." He went on, waving his hand a bit. "I have to admit that, despite being made more machine like than man, I have come to think of Cryptor as a son." Cryptor growled at Cyrus' words.

"I'm not your son, and you're not my father." He hissed, not liking the term used for him. Zane looked at Cryptor a little saddened by what he said.

"I always called Julien my father." Zane explained to Cryptor.

"I don't care if you called a rat your dad." Cryptor hissed at Zane. "Cyrus is not my dad and I will not call him my dad. If he was he would be one miserable father, wouldn't even be able to play soccer with his son, much more even have time for him." Cyrus flinched at Cryptor's words, feeling an emotional pain in his chest as he did. He loved Cryptor but Cryptor did not care for him. Cyrus' hopes for Cryptor to improve were dashed.

"Cryptor, you watch your tone. You do not insult a man's father." Cyrus retorted, voice cracking as he did. "Zane has done nothing to you. And we've been over this before, I cannot control that my legs don't work. I was born this way. What do you want me to do? Saw my legs off and get robot replacements?"

"Would you be able to do that? Because I would highly advise it. Then you wouldn't have issues anymore with people taking you out of your chair that takes up too much space." Cryptor hissed, then turning to glare at Zane again. "And Zane was a ninja was he not? Because if he was I doubt he could even kill an ant." Zane frowned at Cryptor.

"You think you could do better?" Zane asked forcing himself to keep calm, the robots attitude beginning to make him mad.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I think I could, mister white ninja who freezes his whole team in a solid block of ice." Cryptor growled back.

"I don't like your attitude, Cryptor." Cyrus said, trying to intervene between Zane and Cryptor. "You don't usually blow up like this. What's gotten into you?" Cryptor growled, continuing to glare at Zane.

"Cyrus I'm going to go use the sparing room." He grunted, turning for the elevator.

"Hold on." Zane said cutting him off and stopping to robot. "I came here to meet you; I would like to get to know you better." Cryptor smirked turning back around to Zane.

"Would you like to meet these lovely things, pretty boy?" Cryptor hissed showing his hands to Zane. Zane easily took notice of the challenge.

"I would love to teach you a few lessons, Cryptor." Zane answered.

"Oh no. Please don't. Things are going to go bad, I know it. Don't do anything rash." Cyrus pleaded desperately. Cryptor would not hold back, Cyrus could tell. Things could only get worse from here. Things never seemed to get better. Only worse. Cryptor smirked, backing up towards the elevator.

"You and me, one on one, no weapons and no special abilities. Just fist to fist, foot to face."

"Agreed." Zane nodded, following Cryptor towards the elevator, despite Cyrus' pleas. Cyrus continued to plead and beg as the two androids boarded an elevator without him. They left Cyrus and headed to the sparing room post haste. Cryptor shoved Zane here or there as they made their way down the hall towards the sparing room. Meanwhile, Cyrus had to wait for the elevator to return to go after them. As he made his way down, the inventor knew he would be too late. No matter how fast he got there, he would be too late to stop them. Everything would go to hell. He knew it. Cyrus' worries and fears were only confirmed when he finally arrived at the sparing room. Zane and Cryptor were already in the midst of fighting. When Cryptor and Zane got into the sparring room the immediately took stance, Cryptor smirking at what he was getting the chance to do.

"I'm going to pound your face in, pretty boy." Cryptor taunted going into an offence stance just before they started. Zane frowned at the threat, moving into a fighting stance as well.

"I don't believe I will be the one getting my face pounded." Zane stated calmly. Cryptor smiled, then charging at Zane.

"You're right! It's going to be a lot worse." Cryptor countered Zane before the two began fighting against each other. When Cyrus entered, the battle was roughly going half and half, that is, until Cryptor had managed to tackle Zane to the ground. That's when the fight all swayed downhill. Cryptor kept Zane pinned underneath himself as he beat on Zane's face, several attacks later seeing his flesh on his face splitting. Upon seeing it, Cryptor immediately slipped his finger into the hole and ripped it open shredding it off to reveal all of Zane's mechanisms underneath.

"So that's where you and I are alike. And here I was starting to think you were just an outdated tin can." Cryptor smirked at Zane's face As Cyrus watched Zane's skin peel from his face, his hope for Cryptor to last dwindled. He knew that Cryptor would have to be ended soon.

"Cryptor!" Cyrus shouted. He quickly made his way to the androids and tried to yank Cryptor away. "That's enough. Get away from him. Go to the lab until further notice this instance." Cryptor frowned when pulled away from Zane, still wanting to rip him apart, but with a grumble, got up and left the room to head for the lap like he was ordered, muttering things as he left the room. Zane now being released from the weight of Cryptor sat up, a little confused by what had all happened so fast. Not wasting time, Cyrus helped Zane stand up. He went right to inspecting the android. There was no serious damage other than the skin on his face.

"I'm so... so sorry." Cyrus shot. His voice trembling as he spoke. "He's never done this before. I don't know what's gotten into him." Cyrus glanced at the door to the sparing nervously before turning back to Zane. "Go to my office and I'll send Pixal up to repair you," he said, voice still trembling and cracking. "I'll deal with Cryptor." With that, Cyrus jetted off out the door as fast as he could, heading to the elevator. Cyrus stopped to contact Pixal before going straight to the lab where he found Cryptor pouting by the table. Cyrus glared at his creation and clenched the handlebars to his chair.

"What's wrong with you!" Cyrus practically shouted. "You were completely out of line. Do you know what you have just done?" Cryptor flinched at Cyrus' tone of voice, looking down at the ground with a grumble.

"Putting an imbecile in their place." Cryptor grunted, avoiding eye contact.

"You ripped the face off an innocent person!" Cyrus yelled. "What you did was atrocious and evil. I don't even know what I could do to make it up to Zane. And you know what? When the media catches wind of this, you will be made into a public pariah. The citizens will be weary of you." Cyrus was beginning to tear up, though his tone remained angry. "They may even deem you too dangerous and make me shut you down!" The inventor shouted. "Do you even think about these consequences? Do you even think about how this could go wrong? Do you even think about how these actions affect people other than yourself? Do you know how this will affect me?"

"I guess… I went a little out of control in there…" Cryptor frowned, keeping his gaze on the ground.

"A little? A litttle out of control? No, I'd say that you were completely out of line!" Cyrus groaned, wiping away his tears. "Why would you even do such a thing? You were unprovoked!" Cryptor then growled glaring up at the ceiling.

"Zane. He just, is so irritating! I feel like everyone is expecting me to be just like him, and I'll never be! I am nowhere near like him! Just, just hearing about him makes me mad! And seeing him? He, are you sure he's even a robot?" Cryptor growled, crushing the table he was leaning against with his hands as he spoke.

"You're the one who tore his face off!" Cyrus retorted. "You saw his robotics. And anyway, no matter how mad he makes you, you don't just attack him. You don't do that to anybody. I mean, I shouldn't have to teach you that. You should know better by now. But I guess it's too late. You've done it and no amount of sorries or excuses will change anything." Cyrus paused and shook his head. He needed to make sure Zane was okay. "I give up on you. I've lost hope." He said loud and clear as he turned to leave. "Stay in the lab until further notice." He added as he left the lab. Cryptor flinched again, looking at Cyrus, his last words stinging. With a crushed sigh, Cryptor slouched to the ground. He messed up. He messed up bad.

* * *

**A/N: Please don't chase us down with pitchforks, Zane is perfectly fine.  
**


	17. Chapter 17

After the incident with Zane, Cyrus grew distant towards Cryptor. Cyrus showed little interest in the android when dealing with him. The android was lucky to get more than a few words from him. The inventor meant what he said when he said that he lost hope. Cyrus could not handle the emotional stress of trying to keep a failed invention like Cryptor going. Being distant was his way of mentally preparing to do whatever he had to do. If he did not prepare, it would only be harder on himself. During the weeks after Zane's face had been torn off, Cyrus recovered from his wounds. The media also caught on to the event and, as Cyrus had said before, Cryptor became a social pariah. Everyone knew about him and what he did to the famous white ninja. Due to such publicity, Cryptor was kept inside and away from the public. The tower was even closed to the public. About three weeks after the event, Cyrus had been swamped with work. Paper work, inventions, and reports littered his desk, leaving him with no time to care for himself. The inventor had come down with a cold, but had too much work to get rest. He was even about to pull an all-nighter again, claiming that the work needed to be done as soon as possible. While working, Cyrus came across some paper work that required a record of his past inventions. Setting the paperwork aside, Cyrus left his office to fetch the record from his lab filing cabinet. Upon arriving, he found Cryptor clicking away at his pen. Paying him no mind, Cyrus went to the filing cabinet to begin searching for the proper file. As he looked through the files of the first drawer, Cyrus sniffled to himself. He coughed here or there too. His head was aching too, but he had work to be done. When Cyrus had first entered the room, Cryptor shifted a glance at him before ignoring him again, continuing to click the pen at the desk. Hearing Cyrus cough and sniffle though caught Cryptor's attention and he stopped clicking the pen, staring at Cyrus.

"You okay?" Cyrus did not look up from the files as he searched for the records needed.

"Yeah, Just a cold." He answered simply. Not finding the file in the current drawer, he closed the drawer and went on to the next one. Cryptor frowned, looking at Cyrus in concern before he got up and walked over to him, light flashing on his head.

"Just a cold? Cyrus, you aren't looking very good." Cyrus sighed at Cryptor's blatant concern.

"I'm fine. It's not a big deal." He stated as he pulled the needed file from the draw. Setting the file in his lap, he turned to head towards the door. "I have work to get done." He added on his way out. When Cyrus started to leave, Cryptor quickly ran over to the door and blocked it off to keep Cyrus from leaving.

"Cyrus, I think you need to go home."

"I have work to do." Cyrus stated. "It's too important to hold off on. I have to stay overnight again."

"Cyrus." Cryptor frowned, looking at Cyrus with a very concerned look. "You need to go home, you are not staying overnight."

"Why do you care?" Cyrus asked, sounding very frustrated. "Why do you care if I stay or not?" Cryptor growled, storming up to Cyrus.

"Cyrus, I'm not letting you stay here and let you condition get worse." He growled as he hauled Cyrus up off the chair and threw him up over his shoulder. Then he turned and headed for the door. Cyrus protested immediately.

"Let me go." Cyrus demanded. Almost right after he spoke, Cyrus began to cough and wheeze into his arm. Behind congested, the pressure from each cough made his head ache worse. "Please let me get my work done." he begged weakly.

"Cyrus, you can't be here like this." Cryptor huffed just getting to the elevator in the hall, waiting for it to come up. "You're going home if you like it or not."

"Cryptor, sometimes working is like that. I just have to suck it up and do it." Cyrus grumbled. He paused to wipe his nose on his sleeve, watched the tiles of the floor as he did. "I'll be fine. The sooner I finish the better."

"Cyrus, you need to go home. Do you even realize how bad you look?" Cryptor asked as the elevator arrived and he stepped into it. "You need to go home and you need to take a break."

"Cryptor, you're being impossible." Cyrus huffed weakly. "Besides, you can't go outside." Cryptor growled at Cyrus' words, not carrying if he could go outside or not.

"You're going home, and I'm taking you there because you are refusing to do so." Being carried outside, Cyrus groaned in irritation. His protesting ceased as Cryptor carried him down the street. Cyrus and Cryptor seemed to get a lot of attention from passersby as Cryptor carried him towards his home. Many people stared and shared whispers and rude side comments.

"This is why you should have stayed in the tower." Cyrus murmured as Cryptor carried him on. Cryptor frowned, sending glances at passersby's when he would hear remarks and whispers about him, mostly just minding his own business and ignoring them. Sure a few of the things said hurt him a bit but he didn't care. He just continued on towards Cyrus' house quickly. When they arrived at his home, Cyrus sighed, knowing the door was locked. "My keys are in my right pocket." He murmured. "Just get me inside already..." Cryptor quickly searched Cyrus' pocket to find the keys, grabbing them and unlocking the door. Then entering the house, Cryptor rather quickly went through the house and to Cyrus' room, then placing him on his bed. It was a relief to finally be off of Cryptor's shoulder. His armor was not too comfortable to have against your stomach. Having been carried all the way home on the armor had made Cyrus a bit sore. The inventor got comfortable and shifted to lie on his side. Then he looked up at Cryptor with a frown.

"There, I'm in bed." He murmured as he pulled the covers over himself. "You can go home now and leave me be." Cryptor frowned, crossing his arms and the light on his head finally ceased flashing.

"Rest." He grunted before leaving the room, going for the door, only stopping when he caught sight of Cyrus' wheelchair in the home. Awhile after Cryptor left, Cyrus uncovered himself and listened careful to make sure that Cryptor was gone. Scooting himself to the edge of the bed, the paraplegic got himself onto the floor careful. Then, with a little cough, Cyrus began dragging himself out of the room and through his house. He had some trouble dragging his own weight in such a way, but he managed. Cyrus dragged himself all the way to the room his wheelchair was in, stopping in the doorway almost immediately.

"Something told me you'd try doing that." Cryptor smirked when Cyrus had dragged himself into view of the chair. Cryptor had decided to wait inside of Cyrus' house seated in the wheelchair until he was sure that Cyrus was okay to leave and would stay in the bed. Getting up from the chair, Cryptor walked over to Cyrus who was sprawled on the floor. "You need to stay in bed and get better."

"Fine, you win." Cyrus groaned in defeat. "I'll stay in bed. I promise..." Cryptor huffed in annoyance as he picked Cyrus up off the ground and began carrying him back to the bedroom.

"You better." Cyrus have a weak nod, giving up finally. His head ached too much to wait another minute for rest. Cryptor was right, Cyrus knew that. When he was set back in his bed, Cyrus got comfortable once again. He covered up and got on his side, setting his glasses on the night stand before finally closing his eyes. It felt good to be in his bed, though his work was still on his mind.

"I'm sorry, Cryptor," Cyrus said with a sick sniffle. "I'm sorry about everything."

"What are you sorry for?" Cryptor retorted. "I should be the one sorry you're sick."

"Cryptor, you didn't make me sick." Cyrus sighed, pulling the blankets over his head. "I was apologizing because I was being difficult... and for being so rude to you." Cryptor huffed crossing his arms.

"Do you think I care? On a scale of how rude I've been to you and how difficult I've been compared to you?" Cryptor sighed, walking away from the bed. "I'll probably go back to the tower and charge overnight. And I'm taking your chair with me… I'll be back tomorrow morning."

"But how will I get around my house?" Cyrus inquired as he poked his head out from under the covers. "What if I need something?"

"You can wait till the morning, I'll be here early." Cryptor answered before going out of the bedroom to go back to the tower. Cyrus pouted and recluded back under his covers. He sniffled and coughed as he stirred in his bed, whining to himself.

"I have to pee." He mumbled to himself.


	18. Chapter 18

Cryptor had a little trouble getting to and from the tower, but it was to be expected, not that anyone had tried to stop him yet. Overnight, he charged as he had said, getting ready to head back early the next morning. Before he left, he had asked a few employees for some advice to help out Cyrus, and had learned of a few things, although he doubted it would be much help from him. Leaving early in the morning so not many people would be on the streets, Cryptor took Cyrus' wheelchair and keys he had taken the night before and quickly making his way back to Cyrus' home.

Getting to the house he fiddled with the keys to unlock the door, entering and immediately going for Cyrus' room to check how he was doing. By the time Cryptor had returned in the morning, Cyrus was still sleeping on his side. The disabled man breathed through his mouth due to being unable to breathe through his nose. He stirred in his sleep when Cryptor entered his room, trying to roll over on his side. He was a bit too much of a light sleeper. Not long after Cryptor arrived, the sleeping man began to cough. It started small, but slowly got heavier. Cyrus covered his mouth as his coughing woke him from his light slumber. He groaned and rolled onto his back, murmuring to himself with a half lost voice. The sick man did not notice Cryptor until he sat up to stretch out. He was nearly startled by the android's presence.

"Morning." Cyrus sniffled quietly, sounding worse than the day before. Cryptor frowned, looking at Cyrus in concern as soon as he started moving, the light starting to flash slowly.

"You look even worse than yesterday…" He sighed.

"Yeah, that tends to happen when you're sick." Cyrus mumbled, hardly audible due to the loss of his voice. "I think I need something for my throat because I can hardly speak." Cryptor hopped up from the wheelchair quickly, shoving it clumsily towards the bed. The employees had given him a little advise for what to do for a sore throat so he quickly turned towards the door.

"Right! I'll be back." He said before dashing off to Cyrus kitchen. Once he got there though he stood stiff, not knowing where to start before he eventually started rummaging through the cupboards. Cyrus quietly waited as Cryptor scampered off to do whatever he was going.

"Be careful in there." Cyrus called, straining his voice to be heard. The last time Cryptor had been in his home, he had ripped a cupboard door off its hinges. Cryptor frowned, not exactly knowing what he was looking for before eventually closing a cabinet softly. Running back to Cyrus' room, Cryptor peeked through the door and looking at Cyrus with shame and disappointment with himself.

"I... Don't know what I'm looking for..."

"I could help you find it." Cyrus coughed as he moved to the side of the bed. "Was it something for my throat?" Cryptor frowned, seeing Cyrus cough as he moved, quickly running over to the bed.

"Shouldn't you stay in bed?"

"Well, probably... but moving around a bit shouldn't do any harm." Cyrus mumbled. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he looked over at his wheelchair. "Do you have any idea what you were looking for?" Cryptor frowned, looking down at the ground awkwardly. Caring and food weren't exactly in Cryptor's area of expertise.

"Well... I was told that tea was something good for sore throats..."

"Right, tea... there's some in a small yellow box." Cyrus said as he demonstrated the size with his hands. "It has these bags, tea bags, inside it. You put them in hot water, which you can get by using the tea pot on the stove... I'll show you." Cryptor stayed completely focused on Cyrus' words, remembering seeing a box like the one he described in one of the cupboards.

"I saw that." Cryptor said before rushing out of the room again, before poking back in. "You can stay in bed, I can do it." Cyrus watched Cryptor run off, feeling a bit worried that Cryptor would manage to break something.

"Be careful," he said meekly. "The tea pot will whistle when it's ready and the tea bags go into the water... don't burn anything. Cryptor quickly found the tea and successfully got the water boiling without burning the house down. Running back to check with Cyrus that what he had was the tea, Cryptor went back to the kitchen and turned off the stove when the pot started to whistle like he was told. Pouring the hot liquid into a mug that he found, Cryptor put a teabag in it and let it sit, then remembering an employee telling him a trick about putting honey in the tea. Rummaging through the cabinets again, Cryptor found the honey easier, clearly labeled as honey and just added a little to the tea. Done making the tea, Cryptor took it back to Cyrus, not sure if what he had done was right or not.

"Thank you." Cyrus said with a sniffle as he took the mug. Cautiously, Cyrus went to take a sip. It was still a bit hot, so he blew on the drink to cool it down. Then he took a careful drink, satisfied by the taste. The warm liquid felt good on his throat too.

"It's wonderful Cryptor. Good job." Cyrus praised. Cryptor looked at the cup slightly confused, not understanding how he had done something right. "Right..." He mumbled, looking at the cup. "Do you need anything?" Cyrus took another sip before setting his cup on the nightstand, retrieving his glasses finally. After putting them on, Cyrus pulled his blankets over his head like a hood.

"Maybe another blanket." Cyrus said as he pulled his legs back up onto the bed. Then he moved to lean against the headboard. "They're in the hall in a cupboard." With a nod, Cryptor exited the room in search of the cabinet with blankets. Upon locating said cabinet, Cryptor grabbed a new blanket. Then he went to return to his creator post haste. Entering the room again, Cryptor presented Cyrus with the new blanket, hoping it would suffice.

"Thank you." Cyrus coughed as he took the blanket. He covered himself with it and sighed, sounding content with the added warmth it provided. The sick man then took another sip of his tea, patting the bed beside him with his free hand. "You can join me if you'd like." Cryptor shook his head with a frown, shifting on his feet awkwardly looking for some other way to help Cyrus out and get him better faster.

"I don't need to."

"Well, there's nothing else for you to do right now." Cyrus sniffled. "You might as well take a seat, my metal friend." Cryptor sighed, grudgingly walking over to the bed where Cyrus had gestured. Fidgeting awkwardly as he took a seat, unsure what he was to do on the bed. When Cryptor finally joined him on the bed, Cyrus smiled weakly at his creation. He could not help but feel how he used to, before Cryptor attacked Zane. Absent mindedly, the inventor leaned against Cryptor. He sighed when he felt how warm Cryptor was.

"It's very kind of you to take care of me, especially after everything that has happened." Cyrus said, closing his eyes. "I haven't been the greatest fath- creator." Cryptor frowned, not really caring that Cyrus had leaned on him.

"Obviously you don't know how to take care of yourself." He huffed, slightly irritated, more concerned for Cyrus.

"Running an entirely company is not easy work." Cyrus replied with a little cough. He reached over for his tea and took another drink. He sighed and let his head rest against Cryptor. "You tend to run ragged. Add all of that on top of everything else I do and there's little time to rest." Cyrus closed his eyes again, giving a peaceful sigh. Although he was sick, this break was long awaited. Though he would be miserable, he planned on enjoying the rest while he could. Cryptor sighed.

"How often do you stay overnight at the tower?" He questioned wanting to know how often it happened. Cryptor didn't like when Cyrus decided to so that and knew it wasn't good for him.

"I usually stay once or twice a week, give or take. Usually only on highly busy weeks." Cyrus answered with a yawn. He sounded very tired. "It really depends on how much work I have. Sometimes I just have to work a bit later than usual and other times I get to go home on time." Cryptor frowned, hearing the tiredness in Cyrus' speech.

"What time are you supposed to go home at?"

"About nine at night." Cyrus answered slowly, sounding very sleepy as he pulled the covers up a bit more. Cyrus was beginning to nod off where he leaned. Cryptor was warm and the warmth made it hard for the sick man to stay awake. Being tired and a bit lazy, Cyrus did not bother to move or speak after that. He stayed still and allowed himself to drift off. Soon enough, the inventor began to snooze soundly, snoring lightly and occasionally muttering nonsense in his sleep. Once Cyrus fell asleep, it took Cryptor a while to take notice, but figuring it out Cryptor went completely silent and remained completely still as the inventor slept on him. Cyrus slept on for Cryptor nearly an hour before coughing himself awake again. When his coughing fight ended, Cyrus sat up slowly. He went right to holding his head, groaning in pain. His head was killing him. "I feel like I was hit by a bat." Cyrus sniffled. When Cyrus woke up Cryptor immediately looked at him in concern, his light flashing.

"You need me to do anything?"

"Yeah, can you fetch me the aspirin from the medicine cabinet in my bathroom?" Cyrus asked. Cryptor nodded, quickly stumbling to the bathroom, standing still in it for several moments. Eventually he located the medicine cabinet in the room and upon opening it saw various types of medication. Now rummaging through the cabinet, Cryptor knocked several bottles and boxes out onto the counter until he eventually found the one labeled with the title he was searching for. Quickly, he made his way back to Cyrus and handed the aspirin to him.

"Thank you, Cryptor." Cyrus murmured as he opened the bottle. Taking some pills, Cyrus popped them into his mouth and washed them down with the cold tea from his night stand. Sighing, Cyrus slouched against his headboard again. His headache would stick around for a while. "Sorry about passing out on you, Cryptor." Cyrus sniffled as he grabbed a box of tissues from his night stand. Taking a handful from the box, Cyrus blew his nose the best he could. He was still too congested to breathe through his nose.

"You think I cared about that?" Cryptor snorted. "You're sick Cyrus, you need rest as I understand and if I cared I would have just shoved you off of me."

"Right.. sorry." Cyrus sighed. "Thank you for taking care of me..." As Cyrus wiped his nose with a tissue, he remembered something important. A pressure in his lower stomach reminded him that he had yet to relieve himself. Hastily, Cyrus got out from under his covers and moved to get his legs hanging over the edge. Grabbing a hold of his chair, Cyrus got himself into his chair. Once set safety in the chair, Cyrus wheeled himself over to the bathroom. "I'll be right out, Cryptor." Cyrus said as he closed and locked the door behind him. Cryptor frowned once he saw Cyrus moving following him for a bit before he understood what Cyrus was doing. Shifting awkwardly, he nodded.

"Right." He grunted, waiting outside of the bathroom for Cyrus to exit. When Cyrus finished, he washed his hands before exiting the bathroom. He sighed as he wheeled himself back to bed. Climbing back into bed, Cyrus got himself sitting against the headboard again. After covering himself up, the inventor leaned over and opened the top drawer of his nightstand, retrieving a book from inside. Cyrus went right to reading it.

"There's not much to do here, but you can find something to entertain yourself." Cyrus stated, not looking up from his book. "I'm probably going to read until I pass out again." Cryptor crossed his arms.

"I don't think you would appreciate that in your house." Cryptor huffed before turning around. "I'll be in the kitchen."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find something non-destructive to keep yourself busy." Cyrus sighed, slouching against the headboard. He had no other choice but to trust Cryptor. "Don't rip the cupboard door off again."

"I won't." Cryptor grunted back to Cyrus, already in the hall on his way there. Cryptor figured that Cyrus would need food at some point so might as well try to figure something out. When Cryptor left, Cyrus read his book in peace. His headache began to subside after a while. As Cyrus read his book, he slowly began to feel tired. Cryptor rummaged through the kitchen for a while, making several crashing noises from dropping things. Eventually though, Cryptor gave up searching for something he could make for Cyrus to eat. He had no idea what he was doing or how to even make something without instruction. Cryptor had found several things in the kitchen, many of them he probably could have used to make Cyrus something. He did manage to find some cash stashed in the kitchen. Grabbing up the paper money, Cryptor went back to Cyrus' room, peeking in to check on him. When Cryptor peeked in, Cyrus was still reading his book. The inventor was almost too enthralled by the story to notice Cryptor at his door.  
"I heard you rummaging around in the kitchen." Cyrus said without looking up from his book. "What were you looking for in there?" Cryptor shifted, entering the room with the money clenched in one hand.

"I assume you need to eat something at some point."

"Oh... yeah. Now that you mention it, I could really go for some soup." Cyrus nodded, setting his book on his lap. He looked over at Cryptor, spotting the money right away. "Please don't make me regret asking you this... Can you please go to the grocery store and pick some up?" Cryptor shifted a glance at the money in his hand, then nodding.

"I'll be back." He answered before turning for the door. Quickly making his way through the streets, many people looked at him with nervous and skeptical looks as he made his way past. Cryptor eventually resorted to parkour after he decided the trip was taking too long. Finally he made it to the grocery store, awkwardly entering the store. When he entered, many people looked his way, many of them completely stopping what they were doing to stare. When the android entered the store, an employee took notice right away. Alarmed by his presence, the employee approached him carefully. Cryptor had become infamous for his malicious attack on Zane. Rumor of other misdeeds and aggressive behavior had also spread.

"I'm sorry, but you have to leave. We don't serve your kind." The employee said with a nervous tone. Cryptor huffed at the employee's approach, crossing his arms and glaring at them.

"I'm not here for me; I'm here for Cyrus, idiot." He spat flapping the cash he had in the air. Turning his sight from the employee, he looked at the store before slowly shifting his sight back. "I need soup." He grunted, refusing to leave the store. The employee frowned and crossed his arms.

"We don't have any soup." He replied sternly. "Take your money elsewhere. Better yet, tell that lousy inventor of yours to make a special doodad to make him soup. Seems to do that with every little thing." Cryptor growled, getting very irritated with the employee.

"How do you not have soup? It's it one of the most basic categories of food?" Cryptor spat at him, resisting the urge to get physical in the situation. "Cyrus is sick. He needs soup. Believe me I would rather not be here and have to deal with your pathetic face, and I would love to get this trip done with as soon as possible." The employee groaned and shook his head.

"Fine. I'll get you your soup so you'll leave, wise guy." He replied with a less than pleased tone.  
With hesitation, he turned to lead Cryptor off into the store, waving for Cryptor to follow. Cautiously, he glanced back at Cryptor as he led him to where they made soup and other pre-prepared items. Going behind the counter, he went to wash his hands. "What kind of soup does he want?" The employee asked. "I assume something sick people eat. Chicken noodle or something?" Cryptor grumbled when the employee asked him the question.

"How should I know? He just said soup, get whatever you think is best for someone who's sick."

"Fine." The employee grumbled, putting on a hair net. "I'll get it started. You better not cause any trouble." He went to the back and began preparing soup. The soup only needed to the reheated and packaged. Once that was done, he poured a serving of soup into a cup and out the lid on tight. The employee took the soup out to Cryptor and rang it up. "That will be five bucks." He said with a smug tone. Cryptor grumbled, shoving the money he had at the employee in trade for the soup. With a grunt and cautiously curious look at the soup Cryptor turned around with a huff, already going to leave the store, leaving all the money he had with the employee. The employee took the money and went to get Cryptor's change. Then he noticed Cryptor walking away.

"Hey, that was a twenty. Don't you want your change?" He asked with the money in hand. Cryptor grumbled, still walking away from the employee.

"No. Keep it." He snorted, leaving the store with the soup. Cryptor quickly made his way back to Cyrus' house, careful not to spill any of the soup. Making it back to the home, Cryptor slipped back in the door, the soup still warm and went to check on Cyrus again and to deliver the soup. When Cryptor returned, Cyrus was still reading his book. He set it aside when he saw that Cryptor had his soup. His face lit up when he saw the cup in Cryptor's hand.

"You didn't have any trouble, did you?" He asked. Handing the soup and disposable utensils to Cyrus, Cryptor grumbled.

"Just an uncooperative employee..."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Cyrus said as he opened up the soup. He took the plastic spoon. The inventor went right to eating the soup, commenting on how good it was. "So, did you have fun getting there?" Cyrus asked between sips of soup. "I have no doubt you were running around on buildings like you like." Cryptor nodded, sitting on the bed like he did before.

"The buildings are faster, there's never any people on them to get in the way."

"I suppose your right." Cyrus sighed before taking another spoonful of soup. He swallowed the warm broth which soothed his sore throat. "I know that you're careful enough to not get hurt. I know I haven't acted like it as of late, but I care about you." Cryptor frowned staring at the wall across the room from him, eventually nodding in response. Cyrus sighed, eating his soup in silence for a while. When he was full, he set the cup on the nightstand. "I feel bad for saying that I lost hope in you, Cryptor." Cyrus said, breaking the silence. The inventor looked down at his lap and shook his head. "I have been a horrible creator. Despite how I've treated you, you still take care of me... I'm afraid that I don't understand why you still care about me at all." Cryptor shifted a glance at Cyrus when he spoke, then looking at his feet.

"You deal with me so much and if I don't intervene with you, you'll get yourself into an even worse condition than you already are. Even if you've been… ignoring me lately, there is still all those times you have in the past…"

"I suppose that I understand." Cyrus replied. The inventor reaching over to pat Cryptor's arm. "I'm going to try to be a better creator for you... I promise to help you redeem yourself to the public as well." Cryptor nodded again remembering his experiences with the public now before getting up from the bed.

"Not before you're better though." He huffed, walking around the bed and grabbing the book Cyrus was reading up off the nightstand. "Finish your soup and then you need to rest." Cryptor said as he took the wheelchair out of the room with him, leaving Cyrus alone once again.


	19. Chapter 19

Several weeks passed after Cyrus was sick and he had completely recovered. For a few days after the inventor had recovered Cryptor had insisted that Cyrus stayed home longer, saying he hadn't completely recovered, but eventually Cryptor let up and let Cyrus go back. As Cyrus had said, he tried to fix Cryptor's reputation with the public, although the task proved to be more difficult than originally thought, more and more issues caused by the android piling up. As the weeks passed, Cryptor remained trapped within the tower once again to be imprisoned within the lab. Occasionally in the weeks a small crowd of protesters would stand outside of the tower entrance, protesting against Cryptor, demanding he be shut down and discontinued. Although Cryptor didn't care what they said about him, what they said hurt him a little; he didn't want to get shut down permanently.

As Cyrus continued to try and boost the good opinions of Cryptor to the public, Cryptor sat in the lab, his attention watching the TV sometimes as he clicked his pen against the desk. Mostly he thought about himself though. Remembering things he had done, things he could do, and things he didn't know. He questioned things and tried to figure things out. He wanted to know things, mostly one thing Cyrus had mentioned indirectly several weeks ago. What could he do? What was that feature He didn't know about? He wanted to know. The fact he didn't know frustrated him. He searched himself for any clues of what it was, struggling to get any leads on the secret until one day it just clicked in him. When he triggered it at first it took Cryptor a while to realize something had happened, but figuring out that he had vanished to the seeing eye shocked him. Soon after he had discovered the setting on himself Cyrus had entered the room to do one of the regular check-ups on him, only to see Cryptor not, yet in the room. When Cyrus had turned around to leave the room after seeing no Cryptor, Cryptor wadded up a piece of paper, chucking it at the inventors head to get his attention. When the paper hit his head, Cyrus looked back curiously. He saw no sign of anybody still. With a suspicious look, Cyrus turned his chair around and went back inside the lab. The inventor smirked and quirked a brow as he approached the table at the center of the lab. Picking up Cryptor's clicking pen and a sheet of paper, Cyrus began writing a note nonchalantly. He hummed a little tune as he wrote the note, using his peripheral vision to watch around him. As Cyrus walked back through the room, Cryptor followed him to the desk, watching him write the note on the paper. Eventually Cryptor grabbed the end of the pen and yanked it to the side, causing Cyrus to scratch a large line across the paper.

"Well, I see you have figured out what that extra feature was." Cyrus laughed as he set the pen down. The inventor reached out to the direction the pen had been dragged in, hoping to locate exactly where Cryptor was. "How do you like it so far? I hope you don't abuse the ability." Cryptor let out a muted huff, the ability of speech lost when he vanished from sight. Then picking up the pen and sliding the paper closer to him on the table he wrote on it.

"How do I turn it off?" Cyrus read the note and sighed.

"The same way you turn it on." Cyrus stated. "Just think about it and you should become visible again." When Cyrus explained, Cryptor nodded and then managed to get it off, reviling himself in front of Cyrus across the desk.

"I don't get what the point of that feature is. It's a little annoying I can't speak when like that either..."

"It's for stealth." Cyrus stated. The inventor shrugged and shifting in his chair. "It so you can sneak up on your enemies. It will give you an advantage in battle. Not to mention that it can aide you in escaping from possible sticky situations... and talking sort of blows the whole idea of stealth, don't you think?" Cryptor nodded.

"I didn't think of it that way. I guess it does have several advantages..."

"Yes, it's quite a useful ability." Cyrus chuckled. The inventors laughing subsided as he shook his head. "Though, with the public disliking you so much, you may never be in battle..." Cryptor frowned at the reminder of the public.

"Could they all just stop? Could you just, lie to them about me? Say I've been reprogramed or reset or something like that?"

"We could do that, but what would happen if they found out it was a lie?" Cyrus replied, looking down towards his lap. "And what if being reset isn't enough for them? You would still be seen as the android capable of ripping the white ninja's face off." Cyrus looked off to his left with a frown and furrowed brows. He had to figure everything out. He could not let Cryptor get shut down. Cyrus cared too much for him.

"If it really came down to it, I could try downgrading you." Cyrus stated. "I could get rid of these special functions and abilities... though the results would mean that you will never get to protect the city. At least you would get to live on though..." Cryptor didn't want to have to change who he was or what he was for the public. With a frown he looked down at the ground with a fallen expression. Even though he hated Zane, he still wished he hadn't gone out of control when fighting him. "I won't resort to that unless I absolutely have to, I promise." Cyrus assured his creation. The inventor looked back towards the door. "I have some work to do and papers to sign. I'll check in on you again later." With that being said, Cyrus turned his chair around and left the lab, heading right to the elevator. Cryptor stayed in the room for only a few seconds after Cyrus left, before he turned himself invisible and fled out of the room, quickly following after Cyrus and slipping into the elevator with him silently. When they got to the office Cyrus got to work, not knowing that Cryptor had followed him. Cryptor stood around in the office remaining invisible. Eventually after a while Cryptor decided to move a few things around in Cyrus' office just for the heck of it. As Cyrus worked, he noticed that papers and writing utensils would move around whenever his back was turned. Of course he figured out why right off the bat, but he kept quiet. Letting Cryptor have some fun would not cause any harm. After a while however, Cyrus grew tired of the little game.

"Cryptor, enough." The inventor sighed. "If you must play around with you stealth mode, why don't you go try it out elsewhere?" Cryptor huffed, becoming visible again and turning for the elevator.

"You're no fun." He muttered as he trudged up to the elevator. Eventually when the elevator arrived, Cryptor sulked into it, pressing it to some random floor before he smiled, vanishing from sight again. For a while he wandered around the tower, occasionally moving something just to freak an employee out, but eventually he found a very specific employee to creep up on and poke with an invisible finger. The employee to receive the poke was Jackson. He had been carrying a heavy box of spare parts that needed to be put away. The employee looked around when he felt the poke, confused when he saw no one. Dismissing the whole thing, Jackson went back to walking down the hall. Cryptor laughed a muted laugh at Jackson's confusion. Walking next to the confused employee, Cryptor reached into the box and grabbed out a spare part, looking at the piece in his hand. As he twisted and turned it in his fingers, it looked like the part was just spinning in the air next to Jackson. Eventually Cryptor threw the part back in, then ripping the box from Jackson's hands. Jackson watched the seemingly levitating objects in disbelief, his jaw dropped. Speechless, Jackson backed away from the floating box.

"D-did someone drug my coffee?" He murmured as a backed away. Cryptor laughed again at Jacksons reactions, placing the box on the ground. Then walking up to Jackson, Cryptor grabbed him and swept him off his feet, beginning to carry him down the hall for absolutely no reason and no destination. Without much thought, Jackson clung to the invisible form when he was scooped up. Feeling the invisible body, Jackson felt around for a face on the metal form. When he felt a strange eyepiece, Jackson smirked. Cryptor frowned when Jackson touched his face, trying to get his head away from his hand with a muted grumble.

"Cryptor, you're such an ass." He laughed. "How are you doing this?" Jackson figuring it out, Cryptor smirked, then turning off the setting as he stopped walking.

"It's a new setting I discovered. I thought I would have a little fun with it." Cryptor answered, sitting Jackson back down. Jackson gave an interested nod and crossed his arms.

"Sounds like an interesting setting." He said with a sly smile. "I bet you could have a lot of fun with it... So... Want some help pranking people? I know an odd guy by the name of Craig who could use some innocent pranking." Cryptor smirked, cracking his knuckles.

"What do you want to do?"

Not long after explaining his evil plan, Jackson and Cryptor set out to pull the prank. As soon as the prank was done, Cryptor and Jackson were chased from a work room by an oil covered Craig. Both pranksters were laughing like mad as Cryptor ran with Jackson slung over his shoulder. Soon Craig became winded, stopping to catch his breath.

"I'm going to get you back later, Jackson!" Craig shouted, shaking his fist as the partners in crime ran away.

"Doubt it!" Jackson called as Cryptor carried him off. Having fled from the scene of the crime quickly, Cryptor stopped once at a safe distance and took Jackson off his shoulder and placed him on the ground. Cryptor and Jackson both stayed I the hall laughing together for a while before eventually walking off. Unfortunately for Jackson though, he got pranked back by Craig and the two both declared it war. Craig and Jackson both pranked each other back and forth with various things, Jackson having the aid of Cryptor. Craig was pretty smart when it came to the pranks and once he actually came up to Cryptor and asked for some help pulling a few off. Cryptor, although sided with Jackson, agreed to help Craig and throughout several pranks Cryptor would secretly help Craig. Finally setting up one of their more intense pranks, Cryptor and Craig had both set up a bucket of water over a door, knowing that Jackson would be coming in through that door soon while Cryptor stayed hidden, armed with a fire extinguisher ready to spray him down. Prepared to blast Jackson, Cryptor stayed stationed as the door pushed open, knocking the bucket on the persons head. Although the person that came in was not one Cryptor was expecting at all and he slipped from his high up position, crashing to the ground with the fire extinguisher. With a bucket over his head and dripping with water, Cyrus sat still in his chair. After a moment, he lifted the bucket off his head and saw his creation on the floor. With furrowed brows, he steered his chair over to Cryptor.

"Are you okay?" Cyrus asked, sounding concerned. He offered Cryptor his hand, noticing Craig peeking his head from around a nearby corner. Cryptor grumbled as he sat up on the floor, then quickly jumping to his feet at Cyrus' voice. His light on his head flashing, Cryptor stared, horrified at his drenched creator.

"C-Cyrus! Are you okay?!" Cryptor gasped, immediately trying to find some way he could help Cyrus out.

"I'm fine. I'm just wet." Cyrus sighed with a nod of his head. "I'm more concerned with that fall you took. Is everything operating at capacity?"

"I'm fine." Cryptor grumbled, finding Craig across the room and shooting a glare at him, finding he was already rushing over to the two.

"I am so sorry Mister Borg." Craig quickly apologized to Cyrus as he made it over. "If we had known you would come through the door first we would never have set it up." Cyrus looked down at his soaking wet clothes with a slow shake of his head. He took off his soaked jacket, setting it aside. Then he rolled up the sleeves of his sweater.

"Who were you trying to get?" He finally asked, looking up at Craig with a dull expression.

"... Jackson," Craig admitted. Just as Craig answered, Jackson entered through the door. He nearly slipped on the puddle of water on the floor.

"Cryptor was helping me get him back." Craig added.

"Cryptor, you traitor." Jackson gasped with faux betrayal. When Jackson entered the room, Cryptor looked at him before he started laughing.

"I see the prank backfired on you, traitor." Jackson laughed as he approached and nudged Cryptor.

"So, this is what you have been up to instead of working?" Cyrus asked, sounding dead serious as he took the fire extinguisher from Cryptor. He then gave the three a stern look with a disappointed shake of his head. "I don't pay you two to dilly-dally and I expected more from you, Cryptor. This sort of nonsense is not productive in any way and is not at all professional. You should all be ashamed." As Jackson and Craig looked towards their feet like children being yelled at, Cyrus smirked and quickly sprayed the three with the fire extinguisher. The inventor laughed as both Jackson and Craig gasped from both shock and the cold foam coating them. "Revenge is a cruel mistress." Cyrus teased as his employees and Cryptor backed away from him as he sprayed more foam.

"I won't be doing it again." Cryptor grumbled after he got sprayed by the foam, sliding his hand down himself and flicking the foam off. He decided as doing the pranking was fun he didn't like being on the receiving end of the pranks.

"That's good, Cyrus laughed as he handed Cryptor the empty extinguisher. Take that to Pixal to have refilled. I'm going to run home and get a change of clothes. Jackson and Craig can clean up the pranking mess." With that, the inventor headed off to the nearest elevator. As he got on, he looked back and waved at the three with a smirk. Then, once the door closed, he was taken to the first floor. Cyrus sighed as he headed towards the door, not looking forward to being harassed by the protesters. Once he left the tower, he was noticed right away. A few people shouted about shutting Cryptor down while others yelled about how dangerous he could be. The inventor frowned as he approached the crowd, excusing himself politely as he made his way through. At one point, a man stood in front of his chair, arms crossed and a glare present.

"E-Excuse me." Cyrus said nervously. "May I please get by?"

"Not until you tell us why you're keeping that metal menace alive!" He spat. His statement was followed with an exclamation from the crowd agreeing with the man.

"Look, I know he messed up and he messed up bad." Cyrus started, sounding more nervous than before. "He's improved and he's not violent anymore."

"That's a load of hooey and you know it!" The man barked. "Why are you fighting so hard for a worthless tin can?"

"Don't call my son worthless!" Cyrus barked angrily. He glared at the man in front of him for a moment before faltering. He looked down to his lap and bit his lip for a moment. "... Isn't it enough that he's been taught that he was wrong?"

"Whatever petty feelings you have for that monster, there is no excusing his outburst against an innocent party." A nearby woman called. "Nothing you do could make what he did just slip by." Cyrus shook his head.

"I-I know." He murmured under his breath.


	20. Chapter 20

As Cryptor went to take a quick short cut through the Lobby to get to a room on the other side only stopping as he heard loud shouts outside the door.

"There he is!"

"Turn him off!"

"Destroy him!"

"Get rid of that monster!"

"He harmed Zane!"

Cryptor stood, staring terrified at the raging crowd outside of the tower, hearing them all shout. Taking a look back he looked at the few employees in the Lobby. A few held sorrowful looks at him, sad that he had to hear the things they all said, a few of them glaring at him in disgust and hatred.

Cryptor growled at the protests he saw outside the sliding door before storming over to it. "Would you all stop?!" He spat at them, several people in the crowd booing at him. "I am not going to be just turned off because you want me to! I have my own life and feelings too you know!" He continued to shout at the people a couple of employees coming over to him and trying to drag him away.

"Cryptor, back off." One employee said.

"You're making it worse."

"Leave the people to us."

"You hurt Zane!" Some girls voice shouted out in the crowd.

"You're a monster!"

"You don't know what feelings are really like!"

"I messed up once and you all want me to die because of it! How would you feel if you made a mistake and everyone wanted you to die for it!" Cryptor defended himself.

"You stuck my cat on top of a traffic light!"

"You scared customers away from my store front!"

"You took my kids cotton candy! You don't even eat!"

"Go die!"

"You aren't alive!"

Cryptor stood, with a horrified glare at the crowd as more employees' came over to try and pull him away, Cryptor now getting food and garbage all thrown at him.

"Cryptor go back inside."

"Why do you all hate me so much! I was built to protect you all and it's what I would have done but obviously you all don't want that! You aren't even giving me a chance! I messed up! I get it!" Cryptor shouted at them, stumbling a step back from the employees pulling and pushing at him. Cryptor growled, ripping his arm from three employees, shoving two of them away from in front of him and going back towards the crowd. "You're all morons! You're all the real monsters!" Cryptor then whipped around, shoving through the crowd of employees that were all trying to get him back in, going back into the building as the protesters continued shouting behind him. With a huff, he stormed to the elevator, forgetting about what he originally wanted to do on the floor in the first place. He hated this. He wanted it to come to an end. Enraged, Cryptor made his way back to the lab, trapping himself in it to look down at the protesters far down below.

A few employees had immediately gone up to Cyrus' office, reporting immediately what had happened on the first floor. Not long after receiving the report, Cyrus arrived at the lab. Cryptor was found standing at the window. Without a word, Cyrus steered his chair over to Cryptor's side. He looked down at the crowd belongs, shaking his head very slowly. The inventor looked at Cryptor with furrowed brows. His eyes were red, which meant he had been crying.

"I'm sorry, Cryptor," he apologized, his voice sounding soft and sad. "I can't seem to reason with them... Nothing I offer is good enough..." Cryptor frowned, still looking out the window with his hands pressed against the glass.

"I'm so sick of it. Why can't they all just stop? Why can't it all just end?"

"I don't know... they're in a mob and seem to think together and reasoning is impossible." Cyrus murmured. "I wish that they could see that you have changed..." Cryptor nodded, sending a look at Cyrus and immediately jumping in shock as his light started to flash. Finally seeing the poor condition Cyrus looked in, Cryptor worried.

"Cyrus! Are you okay? What happened to you?"

"Oh... Nothing happened." Cyrus shrugged, wiping at his eyes to make sure he was no longer crying. "I... I'm just a bit stressed, nothing to be worried about." Cryptor looked at Cyrus doubtfully.

"Maybe you should go home and rest." He recommended.

"It's too early for that... and I'm not tired." Cyrus feigned a chuckle. The inventor smiled weakly at his creation, giving the android's back a firm pat. "I'll be fine, I promise." Cryptor frowned, still looking at Cyrus in doubt.

"You really don't look well..."

"I'm fine. I promise to head home on time tonight." Cyrus replied, forcing a smile. It was hard to lie to Cryptor. "So, how about we talk about something else?" Cryptor continued to frowned, dropping the subject. Looking out the window to see the still protesting crowd he sighed.

"What have you told them?" Cyrus looked back towards the window and twiddled his thumbs.

"I... tried to reason with them. When reason failed, I promised to try to figure something out." Cyrus stated. The inventor looked off in the distance with a frown. Things went quiet between the two briefly. "S-say... do you remember when I first powered you on," Cyrus asked to break the silence. Cryptor stayed silent for several moments after the question, not knowing where it came from. Eventually he nodded.

"Vaguely."

"I remember that I felt very proud when you were first powered on. A job well done I thought." Cyrus said. He wore a sweet smile as he thought back to how innocent Cryptor had once been. "You've... come a long way since then." Cryptor frowned, knowing something was up with the way Cyrus was speaking to him. Becoming uncomfortable with the conversation, Cryptor unnoticeably shifted himself away from Cyrus.

"Why are you bringing this up?"

"I don't know." Cyrus answered. He looked up at Cryptor with furrowed brows. It was getting harder for the inventor to keep up the pathetic charade. "Cryptor, I love you like you were my son... though I'm a failure of a father." Cryptor furrowed his brow not liking where the conversation was going at all.

"You're not a father, you're an inventor." Cryptor answered. Cyrus shook his head, beginning to tear up. He wanted Cryptor to call him father, but he knew that it would never happen. The inventor did not feel that he deserved it anyway.

"I'm sorry... I should learn that I'm not a father." Cyrus said with a sad chuckle. He wiped at his eyes and turned his chair to face Cryptor more. His heart was heavy as he looked at his creation as he backed away. "Cryptor, I want you to know that all of this is my fault and I am so very sorry." Cyrus murmured with a trembling voice. The inventor shook his head as he slowly reached for his jacket pocket. "I don't want to do this, but... we have to shut you down." Cryptor shook his head as he backed away from Cyrus, knowing where he was heading with the conversation as he spoke. Already in the middle of the room, Cryptor clenched his fist glaring at his creator.

"No! Are you really letting those people get to you?! Are you really siding with them now?! You're weak! You're pathetic!" Cryptor spat as he backed away, bumping into one of the tables in the room and stumbling. "I won't let you! I am not getting powered off! I am not going to be killed! You won't turn me off! I'm leaving!" He cried just before turning for the door, grabbing the knob to open the door.

"I'm sorry." Cyrus murmured as he clicked the remote he had made for Cryptor from his jacket pocket, powering Cryptor off.

The moment he powered Cryptor off and the android toppled to the ground, Cyrus felt his heart shatter. He was immediately overcome with grief. Thoughts of defying the public wish were present in his mind as he approached the android he had loved so dearly. Despite everything that happened, he loved Cryptor.

Though Cryptor had not returned his feelings, Cyrus loved Cryptor like a son. Having to shut him down felt like a father being forced to pull the plug on his child. No parent should even have to bury their child or anything similar. It tore Cyrus apart to do that to Cryptor.

With tears welling in his eyes, Cyrus reached down and pulled Cryptor up by his arms and into a tight hug, leaning over the handlebars of his chair to do so. He began to sob quietly as he held the lifeless body. With a trembling voice, Cyrus apologized on repeat to Cryptor's lifeless body.

"I'm sorry." He sobbed, fat tears falling down his face. "It's all my fault. I'm to blame. You deserved better. I'm so, so sorry... Cryptor... I'm sorry."

Cyrus did not get to mourn in peace for long. An employee walked in, shocked by the sight. With a sympathetic look and tone of voice, the employee informed Cyrus that the protesters were getting out of hand. Having no other choice, Cyrus had to inform the public that Cryptor had been powered off for good.

With a megaphone in hand, Cyrus went outside and sat in front of the large crowd. Drying his eyes on his sleeve, he turned on the megaphone and cleared his throat.

"I... I have come to inform you all that Cryptor has been shut down for good." He said as clear as he could manage, his voice catching at the end. "You... You can all go home."

"How do we know that you really did it?" A man called from the crowd.

Cyrus went quiet for a moment, staring out at the crowd blankly as tears began to well in his eyes again. The inventor began to tremble, choking back a sob. The free hand gripped the fabric of his pants.

"Yo-you're all... You're all gonna make me show you his body, aren't you?" Cyrus sobbed, shaking his head. "F-fine... you monsters."

Cyrus had his employees bring Cryptor's body down to prove that he was dead. He let the public see Cryptor briefly, sobbing uncontrollably as the protesters began to cheer and celebrate. Once it was proven that Cryptor was dead, the android was brought back inside.

After that day, Cyrus had Cryptor put up in his room of failed inventions. A special place was made for the lifeless android with a plaque that told his story. Cyrus made sure that the plaque stressed how every problem with Cryptor had been his fault.

Seeing Cryptor on display amongst his failures was hard on Cyrus. It was painful to see. The inventor was nothing less than broken hearted. Cyrus would often break down and cry as he remembered Cryptor's short, problem filled life.

Every day after Cryptor had been shut down, Cyrus visited his creation to mourn. The first few days, Cyrus stayed by Cryptor's side as much as he could. Most of his time beside Cryptor was spent crying and apologizing over and over to his lifeless creation.

Though Cryptor would have protested, Cyrus stayed at the tower to be with the lifeless android. The inventor rarely slept, only resting when he could stay awake no longer. His employees and Pixal began to worry about their boss' health.

Throughout each day Cyrus stayed with Cryptor, Jackson would check on him and bring him food and water. The employee would urge Cyrus to go home and sleep. From time to time, Jackson would join Cyrus and mourned by his side. Although he was not as close to Cryptor as Cyrus, Jackson still felt like he and Cryptor were friends. Knowing that he was gone was painful for him too.

Often Cyrus and Jackson would talk and tell stories about good and bad times they had with the android when they mourned together.

One day, about two weeks after Cryptor had been shut down, Cyrus told Jackson about the first day he powered Cryptor on. The inventor told the story with an air of fondness and sorrow, tearing up as he told Jackson about how innocent and naive Cryptor had once been. Cyrus even told Jackson how proud he had been when Cryptor had learned to walk.

As time went on, Cyrus began to stay away from Cryptor longer and longer, though he still felt grief. He was eventually able to return to his usual schedule and work like he used to, though he made sure to visit Cryptor whenever he could.

Cryptor was present on his mind throughout each day. The inventor even began to take better care of himself, knowing that Cryptor would not have approved of all-nighters or him working himself half to death.

He could never forget Cryptor.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you all for reading! That's is! Admittedly, Louis and I cried a lot here writing the final chapter. We even included those three filter chapters to keep us from crying so hard! …I had to stop reading mid-way when I read the end… The pain.**

**Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this! It was very fun to write. In fact, Louis and I have been talking about making a sequel to this, so if you're interested in that! Keep an eye out! It might happen!**


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